Those Funny Eccentrics
by SparklySlushie
Summary: Rose is happy to be back for her fifth year at Hogwarts. Except for the fact she may possibly like Scorpius Malfoy. And Lily, her own cousin, could be dating him. Shall we commence freaking out, phase two?
1. His name's Faboccini

**A/N: **Yay! Here is the sequel to "Time for Dinner." I hope you guys will like it and yes, I know the title is strange, but I couldn't think of anything else. "Eccentric" means 'strange,' 'weird,' or 'oddball.' It's supposed to describe the story characters. :)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter.'

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I sighed deeply and sat down at the table in our family room. I had my quill, ink, and parchment all ready for the letter I was going to compose. The thing was, though, I hadn't decided what was going into the letter. My hand started to tap the end of my quill on the tabletop. I sat there in the silence – besides the quiet tapping noise from my quill – with the dull light I had turned on. It was 4:07 and still kind of sunny outside.

I was still thinking of something to put down when the hand holding my quill began to write. Curiously, I moved my head over to see what it – I mean I – was writing. It was actually pretty good and I was waiting for the end at what time my mum decided to drop in.

"Sweetie, what are you still doing here; I thought you were going to your friend's house?" she asked before she saw the letter. "You're writing a letter at home when you could just do it over your friend's house?" she sounded skeptical and I was about to answer that they'd laugh at me when they found out who I was sending it to when I had caught sight of the time.

7:25.

Whoa! I had wasted _that_ much time trying to write _one_ simple letter?

My mum kissed me on my head. "Don't forget to tell us if you're going to your friend's house or not, okay?" she said as she turned to go back to bed. "And you are quite a writer." I could feel my face heat up a little and watched her retreating form. When she was gone, I waited for my hand to continue on with its genius writing, but it just fell over, the quill rolling across the table a little. Why wasn't it writing the brilliant words anymore?

_Get a grip on yourself! It was _you_ writing those words, not your hand! Well, your hand did help, you know? It held the quill up and wrote the words down, but it was _your_ brain that formed the words being written! _

I have the weirdest thoughts ever. But I took the advice that was thrown to me and added down words that sounded like they went along with the rest of the letter. I reread it and grinned. I may be strange internally, but I sure do know how to write a letter. I'll fix the whole strange mind thing later.

I moved over to my owl, Faboccini, and gently nudged him awake. His eyes came open and he quickly looked alert. I grinned again and pulled some drawers open to look for some string. I folded the letter and tied it to Faboccini's leg before opening the window. I muttered to him who to deliver the note to and looked on as he spread his wings and took flight. I thought about reaching out to pull him back as he had his wings spread, but it was too late.

Faboccini was already out the window.

My letter was tied to him.

He was going to deliver the letter.

The letter was going to be read.

_What_ have I just done?

I stayed up well into the night waiting for Faboccini to come back. I was thinking of some ways I could get the letter back before it would be read. None of the ideas were any good and I had actually wished the weird thoughts would come back to me and give me some weird idea that would work. He – or it – never came back.

It was around three in the morning that I realized that my owl probably wouldn't have come back right away. He'd probably stay there for the night and catch some sleep; not fly cross country to make a delivery and come back the same night.

I grudgingly went to my room to try and forget about the embarrassment that was sure to ensue after Faboccini did his job. My blankets were somewhat cold when I slipped under them and I thought that would knock me out in a heartbeat; the coolness of them. I closed my eyes and waited for sleep to overcome me. I moved so that I was lying on my side when I found I was still awake. I closed my eyes again, but after a few minutes, they came back open. This was going to take some time.

I was in the state of consciousness and sleep when I heard some distant fluttering. The noise prompted me to wake up and check on the noise. Checking the time, I noticed it was seventeen minutes after five. I made it to the family room, but Faboccini wasn't there. I moved to the dining room and saw him ruffling his feathers to get ready to get some sleep. The noise made him stop and he looked up. When he saw it was only me, he proceeded to close his eyes.

_Don't be grateful to see your owner _I thought. I gazed at both of his legs trying to see if there was a letter. There wasn't. Maybe he was hiding it. I moved all around him and saw there still was no letter. Maybe he dropped it on his way back and didn't bother trying to go back for it. He was trying to rebel against me and show he needed no master. I needed to calm down; where was the calm, cool, and collected person I was while at school? I took a deep breath and searched Faboccini again – he hooted angrily at me; who did he think he was to do that to _me _of all people? – before heading back to my room to try and get some sleep. I didn't know why since I was to be up in an hour to get ready for the day.

I crawled back into my bed and lied there thinking about the possible reasons I hadn't received a reply.

Faboccini was indeed rebelling and lost it purposely.

Faboccini didn't wait long enough for my letter.

They didn't want to respond and shooed Faboccini out of their house.

Faboccini lost it accidentally.

Faboccini delivered the letter to the wrong person.

Needless to say, most of my excuses included Faboccini. When I finally succumbed to sleep, one idea popped in my head that hadn't consisted of him.

They were thinking about what I had written.

But even that was a little farfetched compared to others, wasn't it?

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**A/N:** So, who was that (it _is_ a guy)? If you're going to guess, please review becasue I want to know who you think the person is. :) I don't know how many chapters this story will have; I've only written up to chapter nine. And I know it seems that there isn't any Rose/Scorpius, but I promise that's coming, just not until a few more chapters.

Thanks to everyone else who read and favorited "Time for Dinner." :)

Thank you _That Romantic_ for the awesome names; Faboccini was my second favorite even though I don't know how to pronounce it. :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	2. His name's Fernando

**A/N:** Finally! It uploaded! It wouldn't let me do it yesterday or Friday which got me really mad, but I hope you'll enjoy. I know it isn't the best, though. :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter'.

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Albus yawned and sat up, his eyes blinking a couple of times to refocus. He climbed out of his bed and walked to his wardrobe, looking for some clothes to start his day. He had only pulled a striped green shirt over his head when he heard some soft hooting. He pulled the shirt all the way down and moved over to the little owl waiting patiently on his windowsill with a note in his beak. Albus stared at it confused for a second, but he remembered where he had seen this owl before. He belonged to Uncle Ron and his family. He gently took the note and smiled when it didn't try to bite his finger. He walked over to his bed to sit whilst pulling the parchment open.

_Albus,_

_I'm writing to let you know that Hugo and I had to clean up the mess he and you made. He deserved it though, but I'm not so sure I should've been cleaning with him; it should've been you. Even though I did participate, but that's not the point._

She was beating around the bush and Albus knew it – she wouldn't have been that "mad" that she had to write him.

_Anyway, I was sorta kinda wondering if you heard about Lily's news. She sent me an owl last night to tell me. You would know about this first, right? You are her brother after all. I was hoping you would tell me who asked her out – she wanted me to guess. I was pacing around my room most of today when I woke up trying to figure out who had and I had nearly pulled out all of my hair when I remembered my favorite cousin and how he's related to Lily. And this is where this letter comes in. So, do you know? Did she tell you? If she didn't, I didn't write any of this to you; you just think I did._

_Rose_

_P.S. – It wouldn't have happened to have been Scorpius that asked her out, right?_

Albus laughed (and wondered how she looked if she was bald with sparse strands of hair). He could tell she tried to be nonchalant when writing the P.S., but she just didn't pull it off quite right. He was curious, though, as to why Lily hadn't told him about her news. He was about to get up when he heard a knock at his door. He had said "come in," but saw he hadn't had time to pull on some trousers. He didn't think he would have time to run back to his wardrobe and find some before the person came in, so he slid off his bed onto the floor. Now the only part the person would be able to see of him would be his head.

His mum entered his room. "What're you doing on the floor?" she asked him, amused.

"Nothing. What're you doing in my doorway this time in the morning?" he asked back with a grin.

"I was going to ask you if you wouldn't mind helping me with breakfast – is that Ron's owl?" she started to walk across the room to the window.

"Wait!" Albus said, "I'm not decent!" Ginny stopped and smiled. She watched as her youngest son pulled a blanket from his bed to the floor to cover him.

"Okay, okay," his mother said, retreating from the room, "do you mind helping me? I could always get Lily." Albus shook his head.

"I don't mind, just let me get decent and I'll come right down." She nodded and closed his door as she left. He sighed and read over the parchment again. Someone asked Lily out? And she didn't bother telling him? Granted, it had only happened last night, but it still hurt some. He went back over to his wardrobe and pulled on an invention called jeans his father had introduced the family to and he put some trainers on his feet.

Before he left his room, he pulled the owl – Fernando was his name – into the house and placed him on his small table; he would write back to Rose later. Al left and was about to downstairs, but doubled back and went to his little sister's room. He knocked on the door and opened it when she gave permission to do so. He kept his hand on the doorknob when he moved in her room.

"`Morning, Lily," he said. Lily looked over at him and smiled.

"`Morning to you too, I guess."

"I was wondering if by any chance someone had asked you out, I don't know, last night?" Albus looked at her; she didn't stiffen or start yelling or _anything_. She just sat there at her desk reading.

Lily shrugged. "Yeah."

"Okay." He closed the door and was about to go downstairs again when the word 'yeah' issued through his mind. That word made him turn around and open the door again.

"You said yeah?" he asked. Lily nodded.

"Yes. Why?" Al looked at her trying to see if she would get even the tiniest hint of mad.

_Well, this is no fun_ he thought, but he figured this was better than when she _was_ mad.

"Did you say yes to him then?" Lily licked her lips and looked at her brother.

"Yes, I did. Now are there any more questions? I'm busy here." She started to look a little irritated. Al decided to back up some.

"Sorry. So . . . who was it?" Lily rolled her eyes; her brother was so blunt, but in a funny way.

She smiled. "You'll find out when we're back at school." She then shooed him out of her room and closed the door behind him.

Albus huffed. "Where'd you get the rudeness from, Lily?" he asked her.

"You!" she said back. He smiled and went downstairs to the kitchen.

"What were you doing? Getting a few more minutes of sleep?" she smiled as Albus washed and dried his hands.

"No, but did you know your daughter received an owl last night?" Al's mouth dropped open when his mum nodded. "Was I the only one who didn't know about this?"

"No, your father and James don't know. How'd you find out anyway?"

"Rose owled me this morning asking who had asked her out. So she'd tell her cousin and mum, but not her own _brother_?" Albus looked appalled. Ginny smiled and ruffled his hair.

"Apparently so," she replied.

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**A/N: **I know, awful ending, but there will be more, I promise. I know there isn't any Scorpius/Rose, but I just wanted to post a chapter on each of the kids from the other story. After they all get their own chapter, the rest will be nothing but Scorpius/Rose. Reviews would be awesome! :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	3. His name's Pablo

**A/N:** I have decided to post this chapter along with Chapter 2 just in case. This was one of my favorites to write/type actually. :) Can you guess who it is? It'll tell you around the end. :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter'.

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"Make sure you have everything packed in your trunk; most of the stuff you need is on the list I gave you," he could hear his mum call up to him.

"Okay!" he said back and distantly he could hear her walk off. He walked around his room; his floor was littered with anything he had brought back from Hogwarts and forgot to lay in their correct position, so it was kind of hard. He stopped when he noticed a handle protruding from under his bed. Pulling on it produced the rest of the object, which happened to be his trunk.

_There's where you went!_ He thought. Clearing a space on the floor by kicking some items out of the way, he opened and placed his trunk on the ground. Then he looked around and tried to fathom what he was supposed to be packing. He remembered what his mum had said and reached into his pocket to pull out the list she made for each of her children. It was a bit wrinkled, but he could still make out what it said.

_I knew you would probably forget what to pack, but I was hoping you wouldn't this year. If you're reading this, you've either forgot or you're checking to make sure you have everything. I'm leaning more toward the latter, but it's obviously the former._

He grinned. Oh, how his dear mum knew him.

_Make sure you have all of the following. If you don't have one of the items, come to me or your father and see if we can't find it. If we can't, you're more or less likely in trouble._

_1 – The three sets of your _clean_ robes _

Looking down from the list, he threw some clothes around and came up with some crinkled and slightly smelly robes. Tossing them on his bed, he thought he'd get his mother to help him clean them later.

_2 – Each of your spellbooks_

It would have made it easier if she listed them off, but he knew she wouldn't, so for the next thirty minutes he was throwing objects around looking for the spellbooks his parents had purchased just last week when they had went shopping. He only managed to find three and decided he would ask about the others as he threw them into his trunk.

_3 – Your cauldron for your favorite subject, the brass scales and the crystal phials that you're expected to own _

He snorted; he was more a teenager for Defence Against the Dark Arts like his dad and his mum knew that. He shoved the list back into his pocket to lug his black cauldron back to his trunk. He reached into the bottom drawer of his desk to get the crystal phials and before he chucked them in the cauldron, he wrapped them up in a pair of socks so they wouldn't break or scratch. He grabbed the scales off his desk and put them in the cauldron too.

_4 – The new rolls of parchment you received_

Panicking somewhat, he heaved a roll of parchment from under some socks. They were still intact. He still had four more rolls to find. Ten minutes later he was standing in front of his trunk with three rolls of parchment that were not harmed, one that was a bit crinkled, and one that was ripped up. Eh, he'd fix them when he was back at school.

_5 – Your new quills and ink bottles_

These were easy to locate; he had been writing to his friends over the summer so all he had to do was clear his desk off and he'd be able to retrieve them. Making sure the ink lids were on tightly, he put the quills and bottles inside the cauldron with the phials and scales as he would most likely lose them if they were in another part of his trunk.

_6 – I was pretty sure you would forget this if I hadn't put it on the list: your broomstick_

He knew exactly where this listing was: inside the shed out in the backyard. He could tell his mum was being sarcastic when writing this, because he was, and had been, a Quidditch player for the last couple of years of his schooling. This year he was hoping to get the title of Quidditch Captain like his dad had.

_7 – I knew for certain that you wouldn't forget poor Pablo, right?_

Soft hooting issued from the window as if he knew his owner was reading over that point. He rolled his eyes; he would _never_ forget Pablo, his first and only owl. He had heard the name from a show when watching the television, thought it was funny, and gave the name to the owl he obtained weeks later.

_8 – Hopefully you would always have this with you, correct? Even if you're not allowed to use it? Wand_

The letter fell slowly from his hands and hit the floor – more like his dirty clothes – as his eyes widened.

His wand.

His wand.

Where was his _wand?_

That was the main thing he needed at Hogwarts. Unless he figured how to do wandless magic. He doubted that because he was still somewhat young and he wasn't that skilled with that type of magic. Anyway . . .

His wand.

His wand.

Ten and one-sixteenth inches of chestnut wood with Thestral hair. Missing.

Oh, wait. There it was, inside his drawer where he kept his spare quills.

Phew. His mum would never let him live it down if she knew he'd nearly lost his wand.

He bent down to pick up the list and saw he had mostly everything from it. There was a little paragraph at the bottom, though.

_You've most likely found everything on this list, I believe. The other items you're missing are hidden somewhere in your messy room and you should probably – more like have to – find them. That means you'll have to do the dreaded; clean your room. It's actually pretty easy so don't freak out. Make sure to put your clothes in your backpack along with your shoes so they won't get jumbled in your trunk. Don't worry; I'll be sure to tell you all of this later today._

_Mum_

He smiled and went over to feed Pablo when he heard a shout from downstairs.

"James! What is one of your spellbooks doing jammed in the toilet?!" His smile grew bigger. So that's where one of his books had gotten off to. He knew his parents could get it out in a heartbeat, but would probably make him do it. He sighed and pulled up his sleeves.

"Coming, mum!"

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**A/N:** There it is! This was pretty short, so sorry for that. Chapter three will most likely be posted tomorrow, so I hope you'll look out for it. :) Reviews would be awesome. :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	4. His name's Hugo

**A/N: **I don't really like this chapter, but it was fun to write/type. :) Thanks to _Nibinokwe_ for the nice review; it really made me happy! :) Can you guess who this person is before their name is said? The first sentence kinda gives it away if you've read 'Time for Dinner' Chapter 9.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter'.

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I sighed loudly and deeply.

Summer homework is just too _boring_.

But since I know my mum will eat me alive when she founds out I didn't do it as my dad looks on laughing, I think I have no choice.

Plus, I really needed some more pocket money.

Digging around through a cabinet, I brought out a quill, an ink bottle, and some parchment. I grabbed my spellbook, flipped it to the right page, and read the first question I should've already finished a month ago.

_Scourgify and Tergeo are two types of cleaning spells. Explain what each does specifically and the difference in the wand movements._

I smiled and eagerly began to write down the answer to this very simple question and started on the other twenty-nine.

Or at least, that was what I _should've_ done. I instead stood, threw down my quill and went down to the kitchen to fix a snack. I had just finished making a ham sandwich containing the works with some chips on the side of the plate and a nice cool glass of lemonade when my mum entered. I bit into my sandwich to avoid any questions and chewed slowly. She smiled at me and moved forward to pour herself a glass of lemonade.

"Did you make this yourself?" she asked after taking a sip. I nodded.

"It's delicious. Now if only you could put some effort into your homework like you put into making this." I swallowed, smiled, and drank some of my creation; my _delicious_ creation.

"I do put an effort into doing homework, mum," I defended myself. She shrugged.

"Do you have any homework you should've finished and are doing now?" I couldn't lie to her; she always found out if I did – call it her intuition or whatever. I bit into my ham again to stall the question some. She knew what I was doing, as she sat on a stool, making herself comfortable.

"Chew as long as you want. I do have all day to hear what you have to say, but you don't have all day to talk, for you do need to finish your charms work." I swallowed that bite of the sandwich and licked my lips.

"Alright! Alright! I'll go do the work! Are you happy? You've guilted your son into one thing too many; let's see if it'll happen again!" She grinned and as I picked up my plate and glass, she took some of my chips. I stuck my tongue out at her and made my way back upstairs.

With the remains of my sandwich, chips, and drink, I completed the first fourteen problems. With an empty plate in front of me, I didn't feel like doing any more problems, so I sat there looking out the window on the verge of falling asleep. That is, until my mum came in with another plate of food and a glass of more lemonade.

"Come on, it's not _that_ boring," she said, setting the plate and cup down next to my spellbook.

"You're just saying that. I mean, you never put off things in your school years," I replied. "Thanks, by the way," I added in pointing to the food. She smiled.

"Might want to finish that up, huh?" When she left, I took a bite into the cheese sandwich and worked on the next seven problems. I belched when that plate of food was eaten up and leaned back in my chair. I was about to try and go to sleep again, but someone entered my room when my eyes had shut and my breathing had gotten slower. I groaned.

"I wasn't sleeping," I said, slipping off the chair and trying to get comfortable on my nice floor.

The person kicked me lightly. "I brought you another sandwich." My eyelids opened and I sat up. Sure enough there was my mum holding another platter. She picked up my empty plate and moved her eyebrows up before leaving again. I scratched the back of my neck and climbed back into my chair and answered five more problems. When I finished, I patted my stomach. I was getting slightly filled up. Maybe I could take a nap now.

I fell out of the chair again and crawled my way over to my bed. I was nearly under the blankets when the woman who gave birth to me showed up again . . . with yet _another_ sandwich. I pretended I didn't see as she set that one down. I opened one eye and saw that she was moving her finger down my book. What was she doing?

"Here you are," she said. I didn't move and expected her to leave as she did the other times, but I could feel the bed go down a little as she sat.

"It's obvious you're not sleeping; I can see your eye is still kind of open."

Drat.

I opened my eyes and stretched a bit. I turned toward her and acted as if I just saw her there.

"Mum! What time is it? Did I oversleep again?" His mum smiled at him; her crazy son.

"There's another sandwich right there, next to your spellbook," she said. I hopped off the bed and bit into the bacon sandwich prior to drinking some more lemonade. I hiccupped a little and worked on the final nine problems finished. I was stuffed and I still had about a quarter of the sandwich left. I just sat there with my hands on my stomach, slouching in the chair. A fluttering noise coming from my window freaked me out a bit, but I saw it was only Fernando, but I hadn't written anyone a letter, so I guess it was for someone else.

"Hey, Fernando," I said. He just hooted. Ah, well.

"Hugo," my mum said from the door. I looked over at her. She smiled and went on, "It's time for dinner in about twenty minutes." I frowned deeply at her. Aha . . .

"You did that on purpose!" I said to her. She merely shrugged.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I do know you'll concentrate on important things – like homework – while eating, just like your dad was some of the time. That's why I would bring you a sandwich every now and then. And look," she said, flipping through the work I had just done, "You finished and everything's correct. Do you still want dinner; I hadn't meant to spoil your appetite, you just work _way_ too slow." I smiled at her and shook my head.

"I'm good, and did you send someone a letter?" I jerked my head in Fernando's direction. She shook her head.

"I think that's for Rose –" she was cut off by someone running into my room.

"Did I get a reply back?" she asked slightly out of breath. Before one of us could say anything, she had called to Fernando.

"Fernando!" She smiled when he flew over and landed on her shoulder. "You must be hungry," she cooed to him and without my consent, she took the remainder of my sandwich and left.

"Teenagers these days, huh, mum?" I asked. She grinned and kissed my forehead before leaving so I could finally get some sleep.

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**A/N: **Hope you guys liked this chapter! :) Yeah, the chapter title kinda gave away who this chapter was about, but you're awesome if you guessed anyway! :) Reviews would be nice, even if they're to tell me how to improve or if this story is awful; I just love getting emails from fanfiction about one of my stories! :) This was a kind of long chapter . . . :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	5. Her name's Rose

**A/N:** Hope you guys like this chapter! I loved typing up the response Albus had for Rose! :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter'.

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Rose walked carefully back to her room holding a plate with a little bit of a sandwich left and her family's owl, Fernando, on her shoulder. She closed the door, moved over to her desk, brought her arm up to her shoulder, and brought it back down to the desk once Fernando had hopped on. She placed the plate on her far left and watched him happily peck the crust. She smiled at him before focusing her attention to the parchment.

_Rose,_

_First things first: ha ha in your face. Lily and I didn't have to clean a single thing. Though, when we arrived home, mum threatened James and me saying if we ever did another thing that made a big mess, she'd use her wand to make the mess bigger and have us clean it up by using nothing but water and a tiny scrap of a rag. Weird. You see how Lily didn't even get in trouble? She and mum went off to talk about more prank ideas. That's one biased lady, but she is pretty awesome mum._

_Yes, I am her brother, but apparently Lily found it irrelevant to clue me in on this piece of information so I was pretty stunned when I read your letter. I'm pretty sure she'll tell you if you guess wrong; she won't tell me a thing saying I'd have to wait until the term started again to see who it is. Of course I'd be your choice for favorite cousin, right? I mean, why _not_ pick me? I'm just that remarkable. And if you don't know sarcasm that was what those last two sentences were. _

_Albus_

_P.S. – You'll just have to wait and see when we get back; and yes, I am laughing at you right now._

Rose rolled her eyes and noticed something at the bottom of the page. The first thing she saw was a black blob with two or three thick orange colored lines coming down from the top at different places. Connected to the black blob underneath it was a bigger black blob. She had her nose scrunched up and her eyes were squinted trying to figure out what it was supposed to be. That was when she saw that there was something written off to the side of the picture if you could call it that.

_This is a picture I drew of you when you said you had practically pulled out all of your hair. Isn't it grand?_

Below that was what Rose figured to be his signature. She ran a hand through her auburn colored hair before laughing at the letter and picture – Albus could draw _way_ better than that. She glanced over at Fernando debating if she should reply or not. He was still pecking away at the crust making her realize how hungry she really was. She was reaching over to stroke him when her dad called up the stairs.

"Rose! Dinner's ready – come on down and wake Hugo!" She stood and made her way over to Hugo's room again. He was lying on his side sleeping. She contemplated waking him or not and began to walk out of his room. Only to get a head start, of course. She ran as quietly as she could and jumped on top of him. His eyes jerked open and he rolled over only to fall off of his bed. Rose smiled sweetly down at him. He glared back.

"Can't you see I was snoozing?" Rose shrugged and stifled a laugh at the word 'snoozing.'

"Dad said for me to wake you up to see if you wanted any dinner. Do you?" She watched as Hugo patted his stomach some as if measuring to see how much more he could contain. He nodded.

"I think I can handle some more food." She put her arm out to help him up. He took it, but pulled her off the bed before sprinting out of his room and down the stairs. She laughed and rolled around on his floor before getting up and following suit.

* * *

Rose ate up the last bite of her chocolate chip biscuit. She looked over at Hugo and saw him reach for another biscuit. She had heard her mum exclaim at how Hugo had just ate four sandwiches, two plates of chips, and some tall glasses of lemonade and was _still_ eating. Rose had found it humorous and strange; she bet her dad had trained him and had said so aloud only to get hit with a crumpled up napkin from her father's direction.

She looked back over at Hugo and saw he had stopped eating and was just sitting there with a sort of glazed over stare. Her first thought was that he was choking and was going to say how ironic, but he ended up burping – really loud. She stared at him with a disgusted expression; it had been weird, but kind of funny. He shrugged at her.

"So, who'd you write to and what about?" He bit into his biscuit and waited for her answer.

"Al, and nothing important, really," she said, grabbing her glass of milk and sipping. His eyebrow raised and he looked inquisitive. For a moment they just sat there in silence, Rose drinking her milk and staring at the platter with the biscuits while Hugo finished his current one. Finally, he spoke.

"You wrote to Al, and it was nothing important?" he asked. Rose nodded. Before she could give an answer, a biscuit had whacked her between her nose and forehead. She gaped at him and wiped the crumbs of off of her face.

"Hugo – " she started.

"Are you gonna tell me?" She shook her hand and watched as Hugo grabbed a handful of biscuits and threw one at her. She grinned and reached out to grab some and saw Hugo stand to back away. She stood too and watched him.

"Why do you want to know?" Hugo had an expression on his face Rose had never seen and was concerned. Until another piece of warm dough flew at her. "It's really not anything important," she tried again as she threw one at him he easily dodged. Then he just started throwing all of his ammo at her, making her drop hers to try and block them.

"What was that?" she asked. The expression was back on his face.

"It's just, it seems like he's a better brother to you than I am," he said finally in a hollow voice. Rose nearly broke out into tears. She wasn't sure if he faking or not, but she did trust Hugo enough to tell him. She dragged him upstairs to her room and closed the door. There she just spilled everything from the dinner party, her observations concerning Lily and Scorpius and she showed him the letter. Once she had finished, she was breathing heavily and had to sit on her floor. Hugo put the letter down and sat next to her.

"It's okay," he began awkwardly. Rose blew the hair out of her face and smiled at him.

"I know, it's nothing to get worked up over, it's just something I had to say." She gave another weak smile. He nodded.

"I knew you would fall for the whole "he seems like a better brother than me" thing," he said standing up and helping her to her feet. She rolled her eyes. She knew that he hadn't been faking – and she knew he knew it, too; he was just trying to cheer her up. He made to leave but turned around.

"Rose?" She turned toward him. "I should probably tell you this . . . " he paused and Rose's eyes narrowed. It was important or something beneficial, she could tell.

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**A/N: **Did anyone catch the reference from "Time for Dinner"? :) Reviews would be great even if they're only to criticize; I'd know what to improve. :) Oh, and I know: awful cliffhanger.

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	6. They're our Parents

**A/N: **I didn't really like this chapter, but I hope you like it. There were just some spots I thought I could do better. But I enjoyed writing it. :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter.'

* * *

"How should I go about this?" he mumbled. Rose sighed.

"Maybe from – I don't know? – the beginning?" she supplied helpfully.

"Okay; it's not Scorpius," he said bluntly before turning to leave again. Rose's eyes had widened.

"What? How would you know?" she asked.

He smirked playfully. "Lily told me the day – rather night – of the dinner party," he said. He watched as his big sister blinked rapidly.

_Was that what she was about to tell me when Albus butted in?_ She thought. Her eyes narrowed again and she turned to Hugo.

"Are you lying to me, young man?" Hugo raised his hands as if he was surrendering.

"If you don't believe, then you don't believe me," he said simply.

"I don't," she said.

"Okay."

"I really don't."

"If you say so."

"I think you're lying."

"I think we established that," he laughed before exiting her room.

_What if he is telling the truth? _She began to think _What if it isn't Scorpius? Hugo would never lie about something like this, especially since my feelings are involved; he'd never want to hurt me_ Rose was so sure that Hugo wasn't lying that she had unconsciously began smiling. Now it was only a matter of time before . . .

"Hugo! Rose!" There it is.

The two came out of their rooms and looked at each other before going downstairs. They followed the voice to the dining to see their mum and dad glancing around at the mess their children had made.

"They messed up all the biscuits," Ron whined. Hermione only whacked him and noticed their children were in the room. "What's the meaning of this?" she asked them.

"Yeah," Ron piped in, "why'd you two have to mess up _all_ the biscuits? I mean, couldn't you have taken three each or something?" Hermione whacked him again.

"Is it always going to involve food, these little pranks of yours?" she asked wearily. This was good; she was softening a little.

"Sorry mum," they said in unison. She rolled her eyes and smiled.

"Clean it up. Now, please." Even if she was punishing them, their mum was always polite going about it. They nodded and were expecting them to leave, but Hermione took a seat in a nearby chair. She caught her husband's sleeve when he was almost out of the door.

"Huh?" he asked. She pulled him into the seat next to her.

"We're going to sit here and make sure they clean up instead of making another mess," she explained. Hugo had said "But mum" at the same time Ron had said "But Hermione."

"We cleaned up last time with no problems," Hugo said when his dad didn't go on. "Don't you trust us?"

Hermione smiled. "Don't pull that card, Hugo, and start cleaning please." Rose and Hugo grabbed a plate and began picking up the biscuits that were big. For the smaller pieces and crumbs, they supposed they would use a broom or something.

After twenty minutes and they had picked up the bigger pieces, Ron groaned.

"Hermione, this is _boring_," he said. He was waiting to hear her response, but nothing came. Rose and Hugo stopped and looked over at her. Her hand was placed on the side of her face, her head was bent down some, her brown hair was covering some of her face, her breathing had slowed –

"Hermione!" Ron said, smiling. His wife's eyes opened slowly and she turned to Ron.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"You were sleeping," he said, that smile still on his face. "So _you_ made _me_ sit in here and watch them pick up food while you slept? Don't you think the roles should've been reversed?" Hermione smiled and kissed Ron's cheek.

"I'm tired and going to bed. Make sure you two finishing cleaning," she added to Rose and Hugo. They nodded again and saw her leave. Rose coughed slightly and was going to go back to picking up the mess she had helped create when her dad stopped her.

"It's okay you two; if she could sleep while I couldn't, then you two don't have to clean even though you deserve it." He smiled at them and waved his wand, making all the crumbs disappear. "But," he added as they tried leaving, "you have to make me some biscuits tomorrow." Rose laughed, gave her dad a kiss, and headed upstairs.

"Thanks for wasting, like, twenty minutes of my life, Hugo," Rose said. He shrugged.

"I'm your brother, that's what I do." She smiled and parted to her room to get some sleep in. She noticed that Fernando was already sleeping and the plate that had the sandwich – now without the crust – was still on her desk. She picked it up and took downstairs to the kitchen to put in the sink. She was coming back up when something came to her. She walked into Hugo's room and sat on the floor next to his bed.

"Hugo," she whispered. When he didn't stir, she tried again, a little louder. "Hugo." He turned to face her, his eyes still closed.

"What?"

"You say Lily told you about her date?" He nodded.

"Did she approach you or did you approach her?"

"She approached me," he mumbled.

Rose nodded and put on a fake smirk. "Okay. Do you get impression that she's a better sister than me?" Hugo's eyes opened, blinking a little.

"Oh, yeah, you're the worst sister _ever_. Didn't you know that? I suppose not since I'm your only sibling. Shame it had to be me, though." Hugo smiled at her. "Now can you get out so I can sleep?" Rose shoved him and laughed, standing up to leave his room. She was at the door when something hit her back. She looked down behind her and saw a pillow. She looked over at Hugo and saw he had went back to lying on his left side so his back was facing her.

Perfect.

She quietly picked up the pillow and made her way back to his bed. Once Rose was right behind him, she posed to thump him with the object. In one quick movement, Hugo had turned, smiled evilly at her, and threw another pillow at her. She laughed and began to hit him with the pillow she currently had. Hugo stood up and grabbed the cushion on the floor and they went back to hitting each other. When a pillow Hugo dodged hit his lamp, it toppled over and fell to the floor, breaking with contact. The two paused in their actions and could hear someone coming down the hall. The lights came on and there stood Hermione looking confused. She looked at the lamp and back to them.

Finally, Hugo said, "See, mum? It's not just food that gets involved in our everyday pranks and such." Hermione smiled, fixed the lamp, and turned back to them.

"Bed, now. Please," she said before turning to leave, but she changed her mind and turned back toward her children. She walked in as if to give them a kiss on their cheeks, but she picked up a cushion and threw it at Hugo. When it hit him right in the face, she smiled again. "Good night."

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**A/N: **There it is! The next chapter is one I hope that you all and a certain person named _That Romantic_ will like. :) Chapter eight, though, isn't really good to tell you in advance. Reviews would be nice! :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	7. His name's On Ree

**A/N: **This is probably my favorite chapter out of all of the ones that I have written so far! Here is Chapter seven!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter.'

* * *

I hugged my mum one more time and let my dad pat me on the back before I began to walk to the train. It was still pretty early, but in the next five minutes it was sure to get busier. Once I boarded, I looked out the window and saw they were still there, standing in the same spots. When their eyes glanced at me, I waved and watched them wave back before they left. I began to trudge down the almost empty hall looking for a compartment. I took the next to last one and tossed my backpack up on one of the racks; then I sat to wait. I checked my watch every now and then in the span of five minutes. Finally, someone began to open the door, making me look up.

"Hey, mate," he said. I nodded and waited for him to get situated before talking.

"So you owled her then?" I asked. He seemed to pale a little. I couldn't stop my laugh from erupting.

"Yes, I did actually," he said angry at the fact I was laughing.

"What'd she say then?" He glared at me.

"You don't need to know."

"So she said no?" I asked. When he didn't move or say anything, I caught onto what he was trying to do. "Or she said yes and you're just trying to confuse me." He shrugged.

"I might. Who knows?" I had a pretty sarcastic response, but he pulled out some new Quidditch magazines and we started comparing different teams and their stats. He had handed me a book and I was busy reading it when the door began sliding open again. I didn't bother looking up – these stats for this new team were too interesting.

"Zabini – um – Henri," the voice said to my companion. A familiar voice. The familiarity of it tore me from the stats into the eyes of the darkest shade lapis lazuli. I looked down the instant she started to blink hoping the color hadn't rose to my face.

Ah, great.

Now I sounded like some lovesick teenage girl.

Just fantastic.

"It's actually pronounced _on – ree_, but I guess you could call me _hen – ree_," Henri said with a shrug. Most of the people at Hogwarts said it _hen – ree_, but others loved the French pronunciation and say it the way it's supposed to be said. I usually mixed it up a bit.

Oh, sorry," she said.

I tried to seem like I was really interested in the magazine when she began talking to me.

"Scorpius, we have a Prefect meeting in ten minutes," she said. I didn't look up, but nodded. "Okay, then, see you two around school?" She turned and left, sliding the door closed. Something nudged me not too long after she left, but I took no notice of it even though I knew it was Henri. The nudging kept coming and after three full minutes of it, I turned to him.

"Something you needed or are you just having some sort of elbow spasm?" I asked. I looked at his facial expression and became confused. He was _smiling_; there was this great big goofy smile in my face. He nodded his head toward the door.

"What was that all about?" I shrugged.

"What was what all about?"

"_That_. What was _that_ all about with Rose?" I shrugged again.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said and I continued before he could interrupt, "but I do know I have a meeting to attend." I stood, grabbed my backpack, and was about to open the door when I heard Henri unzip something. I turned around and narrowly missed getting hit by an ink bottle. Instead it hit and smashed against the wall, the ink dribbling downwards toward the seat and floor. I looked at him and for a moment we were quiet. Then we busted out into laughter.

"Get that up before I take points," I said to him, still laughing.

"Okay," he said, also still laughing. I opened the door again and he spoke. "I wasn't trying to hit you, you know. Just trying to make it seem like I was." I nodded. I was outside and about to close the door when I caught his eye. Both of us looked at the stain and laughed again.

I walked down the hall to the restroom so I could change out of my casual wear into the school robes. When I finished, I pinned the Prefect badge to the front of my robes and made a quick stop to the compartment with Henri to drop my pack off. The first thing I noticed was the ink stain was still there and it looked bigger. There was also something written on the wall: "LP." I tried not to smile and looked at my fellow Slytherin. He was now lying on the seat with a Quidditch magazine on his face. I kicked him with the tip of my shoe.

"What?" he answered.

"You didn't clean it up, made it bigger, and wrote on the wall. Are you actually gonna get rid of it?"

He shifted over. "Yeah, yeah. Go have fun or whatever." I really should have deducted points, but it was a little too early for that and I was new to the job, so I kicked him with the tip of my shoe again before dropping my rucksack and leaving. Checking the time, I saw I had about two or three minutes to get up to the front of the train for the meeting.

Oh, joy.

I made it with a minute to spare and saw there were only four other people there. The others were probably running late, _really _late. I sat in the back and waited for the other Prefects to file in at the last second.

Albus Potter, one of the four, turned to look at me and nodded. I nodded back and focused on the Head Boy and Girl (a Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw; seriously?) talking in quiet tones and writing down various things. My eyes strayed from them and landed on auburn colored hair and I began to think she had probably been in here since before she told me there was going to be a meeting. I averted my eyes when the door slid open and more people came in, issuing apologies for why they were late. Soon there were twenty-six people in the carriage, all seated. The Head Boy and Girl smiled and stood, the meeting coming to a start.

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**A/N: **So with the information from this chapter, can you deduce who Chapter one is about? It should be obvious since I only mention four people by name in here. I love reviews! :)

--~~ Sparkly ~~--


	8. His name's Scorpius

**A/N: **Like I said in the previous chapter, this one is not really good, but I did need it for a reason. And yes, Chapter 7 was about Scorpius. :)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter.'

* * *

I took a deep breath and smiled. I couldn't wait to get back to Hogwarts and it wasn't just for my friends this year. Thinking of my friends made me walk a bit faster down the hall trying to find their compartment. I would glance through every window seeing if they were in any of the carriages in the front, but they weren't. I had ventured into the middle section when I finally spotted them. I slid the door open and stepped in.

Before I could close it back, I was engulfed into a hug by my best friend.

"You look so much taller!" she exclaimed. I laughed and hugged her back. When she let go, I closed the door and turned to my other friend; I wouldn't call us best friends, but we are pretty close. She was reading a book and apparently hadn't heard me come in or Andi's outburst.

"Hey, Phoenix, have a good summer?" I watched as she read another sentence, marked her page, closed the book, and finally look at me. She smiled and hugged me in a gentler manner.

"Hey. And it wasn't anything special because we didn't really travel anywhere. But, you should hear about Andi's summer; I'm sure she's bursting to tell you." I looked over at her and saw she was looking at us just waiting to come in.

"Thanks, Phoenix!" she said and she turned to me as Phoenix rolled her eyes and listened to what Andi had to say again. I was pulled into a story about dancing, a wedding, tripping, cake, and tripping while dancing at a wedding and landing in the cake. I couldn't help but laugh at her, she was so clumsy.

"And that's why I'll probably never be a bridesmaid ever again," she concluded. "I was too young, anyway, but maybe I'll get lucky." I laughed again and watched my best friend comb through her long, light brown hair. Her brown eyes locked on mine suddenly.

"You haven't told us about your summer," she said curiously. Even Phoenix looked up from her book looking curious as she brushed some of her black hair out of her face. I ran my tongue across my teeth before speaking; I hadn't owled them anything about the dinner party.

"It wasn't anything special; really," I added as I looked at their skeptical expressions. Andi rolled her eyes.

"How could your summer _not_ be interesting? Don't you and your family go to different places each summer for something or another?" I nodded.

"Not this year, though, we just wanted to stay home." I shrugged. "No big deal."

"What _really_ happened then?" Phoenix asked, closing her book once more and setting it to the side.

I licked my lips. "We _really_ did stay home this summer," I tried to assure them. They tried to speak again, but the door slid open. Like the questioning girls we are, we turned to see who had entered. Or just opened the door, rather. I smiled at the person.

"Nothing wrong or strange in here, right? Nothing's bothering you? There's some other stuff I should be saying, but I'm just going to skip it, is that alright with you ladies?" The boy noticed me and smiled back. "Hey, Lily, enjoy the rest of your summer?" I shrugged.

"It was pretty good, I guess; Albus and James got in trouble for the prank Albus, Hugo, and I did even though James hadn't even known about it. See how I didn't get into any trouble?" He laughed.

"See you around then," he said and he was about to close the door, but I got up and hugged him. He hugged back and I went to sit again as he shut the door. Andi had an eyebrow raised and Phoenix looked confused.

"Since when have you known Scorpius Malfoy?" Phoenix finally asked.

I laughed. "Since the summer."

"Oh, _nothing _happened over your summer, huh?" Andi said sarcastically. "Okay, so tell us how you've come to know Scorpius Malfoy." She sighed and started from the beginning.

"Well, my uncle and aunt –" I began.

"Which aunt and uncle?" Phoenix asked with a smile. I rolled her eyes and smiled back at her.

"You two know my cousins Rose and Hugo, right?" They nodded. "Their parents. They had a dinner party and invited my family and his family. We arrived a bit late because of James, so when we got there, there weren't any other chairs, so I had to sit next to my parents who had taken a seat next to the Malfoys. Guess which Malfoy I had sat next."

"Scorpius," they both said. "And what'd you guys talk about?" Andi threw in.

"Nothing really. I asked him if he was friends with Rose or Albus and the conversation sort of started from there. Somehow we ended up talking about his friends and you know the cute one – "

"Oh, yes," Andi sighed and Phoenix nodded in agreement.

"Well, I got a letter before the party, but I didn't have time to read because it was nearly time to leave, so I put it in my pocket and we left. I got to read it in the car before James set off some fireworks, fogging up the air; that's why we were late.

"Anyway, after we talked about his friends, I asked him about Henri and showed him the letter before we moved to the dining room. I didn't get to sit by him, but I did get a chance to talk to him before his family left and he wished me luck with Henri." I took a deep breath. "See: it wasn't anything interesting." I looked over at them and saw their eyes were wide and unconvinced.

"That was a _much_ better summer than ours, Lily," Phoenix said. "So, did you reply to him?"

"Yeah, the next morning because I didn't know what to write to him, so I wrote to Rose the night of the party after we got home." I could tell Andi was about to criticize what I thought was an interesting summer and what wasn't, but the door slid open and there stood the food trolley and a lady.

"Anything from the trolley, dears?" she asked sweetly. We smiled back at her and felt around for some money. I instantly chewed on some Drooble's Best Blowing Gum because I knew there was going to be plenty of questions to come for the remainder of the trip.

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**A/N: **The reason I needed it? It was to explain who was the person in chapter one (Henri Zabini), when he wrote the letter (the day of the dinner party in my story 'Time for Dinner'), and who he wrote it to (Lily L. Potter). I hope the chapter isn't too confusing, but if it is, all you really need to know is what I put in the former sentence. :)

The chapter title wasn't all about him, so sorry for that. :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	9. His name's Albus

**A/N:** Chapter nine . . . not one of my best, but I still like it. :) Enjoy if you will.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything dealing wiht 'Harry Potter.'

* * *

Rose waited patiently as her friend Emily grabbed her bag and they left their compartment together. She had been sitting with most of her family, but when Emily came they had moved to another place that wasn't as crowded. Rose had known Emily since first year when she had accidentally tripped over her when she was tying her shoe. Emily had burst into laughter, finished tying her shoe, and helped Rose up and the two began to apologize and talk.

They made the usual "how was your summer" talk before conversing about whatever came to their minds as they moved to the carriages. Rose pointed to a random carriage and they made their way over. Or they were about to before someone came up behind them and put their arms around the two girls' shoulders.

"So, where are we sitting, ladies?" Rose turned around and was met with the dark harlequin green eyes of Albus Potter. She grinned at him and shrugged his arm off at the same time Emily had.

"In that carriage over there. Why?"

"Because we've always shared the same carriage for the last three years and I'm not going to be the one who breaks tradition," he replied with a matter of fact tone. He paused and grabbed Emily's burden before walking again.

"You don't have to hold that, Albus," Emily said. Albus shook his head.

"I know; it's just my gentlemen skills coming through."

"If only you'd grab one of mine, too," Rose said, pointing to her bag. Al stopped and looked at her.

"Can't. You're family so it really doesn't matter." He grinned and nudged her before taking the bigger of her bags. She smiled and he stuck his tongue out at her.

Rose and Emily laughed and followed Albus to the correct carriage. They had to squeeze in, out, and between all the people who had decided to choose now to hug and look for their friends. On the way over, Rose bumped into someone, knocking their ink bottle to the ground. Her eyes widened as she watched it fall and crash into little pieces on the ground as the ink flowed around.

"I'm sorry; here you can have one of mine if you want – " she stopped short of reaching into her bag when the person laughed.

"It's okay," he said, "I was about to throw it at Scorpius anyway." She looked into the brown eyes of Henri and smiled before narrowing her eyes.

"What do you mean you were going to throw it at Scorpius?" His eyes almost gave him away, but he quickly regained his composure.

"I said I was going to throw it _to_ Scorpius," he lied. As her mouth opened to ask another question, he sighed.

"I'd love to chat with some more, Rose, but my dear friend has found us a carriage to occupy." He pulled out his wand and cleaned the mess before smiling at her and running off. She shrugged and looked around to find Emily or Albus, but they had already walked on. She started off in the direction Henri had as that was where the carriage she had pointed out to them was. She had finally found the inherited messy black mane Al called a hair and Emily's blonde locks; they were in a cart with their backs to her.

Rose began to climb in and graciously took the hand Al stuck out to help her.

"You guys couldn't wait for me?" Rose asked, sitting on the seat across from them and dropping her bag on the floor.

"Eh, we didn't know you were lagging behind until I couldn't hear your nagging voice anymore," Albus said. "We didn't have time to go back for you because someone might've taken the carriage and you were the one who pointed this one out, right? You would've been able to find it again." Rose shoved Albus and smiled. She turned to Emily and started a conversation between the three. The three stopped talking when two more people climbed up into the carriage. Rose looked around and saw other people were racing to carriages as the ones in the front had begun to move.

"I was _not_ about to sit next to _her_," the voice Rose had heard just moments said. He looked up, saw them, and flashed a radiant smile. "Rose," he said. He looked at the other two. "Er, Rose's friend," he said to Emily. "Um – Harry Potter?" he questioned Al. As they corrected him, the carriage started to move. Rose tried to slide over to make room for Henri to sit next to her and Scorpius next to him, but Henri stopped her.

"No worries, Rosie dear, I'll sit there." He grinned at her again and took the seat on her right. She half expected Scorpius to sit on the other side next to Emily rather than her, but he took the seat and glared at his friend who had leaned over to look at him. Henri only smiled his handsome smile like he had so many times before and straightened up.

"So, how about that new Quidditch team?" Henri finally said when a silence had started and stretched on. That one sentence had gotten everyone but Rose to start talking; she did like Quidditch, but she hadn't heard of this new team. Henri had noticed that she wasn't talking and reached into his bag, pulled out a Quidditch magazine with the team in it, and handed it to her. She looked at him and smiled and deduced that Henri Zabini was a pretty nice person even though she didn't know him that well.

Rose opened it and was immersed in the words describing this team and didn't hear a word the other four were saying and barely registered that they were there. That was before she heard Scorpius tell Henri some aspect about the team and how Henri disagreed. Then Scorpius slid over to Rose a little until his leg and arm were lightly touching hers. Henri leaned over also, but not as close as Scorpius had, to look in his book. If they were able to see Rose's face in the dark, they would've seen she was blushing slightly.

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**A/N: **And there it is! Like I promised in a previous chapter (I'm not sure which one), the chapters following this one will be all Rose/Scorpius. Thank you guys for waiting so long! :) Sorry for the length. Reviews would be awesome! :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	10. Her name's Lily

**A/N: **I loved writing Albus in this one. :)

**Disclamier:** I don't own anything dealing 'Harry Potter.'

* * *

Rose settled well into the first few days of her fifth year. The only problem was that Lily still hadn't told her who she was dating.

She watched as in the morning Lily would always go to the Gryffindor table and eat with her friends, Andi and Phoenix. She'd never look over at a boy during this time and that made Rose wonder if anyone had asked her out. She remembered Hugo said there had been someone who had and she would wait as tolerantly as she could until she knew she would blow.

When breakfast had been over on the fourth day, Rose got up and sat down next to Lily. There she had asked the question that had bothered her for some time.

"How come you don't eat breakfast with this mystery bloke of yours?"

"He's not really a morning person, I guess," Lily had responded with a shrug. "Usually the morning's just for us to compose ourselves before we hang out and stuff." Rose nodded but did note she had never seen Lily eat with any boy during lunch or dinner unless it was a family member or friend. "But I might sit with him at breakfast occasionally," she added. Finally, that day came.

Rose had entered the Great Hall thinking about how hungry she was; this was a first from the past couple of days as she was always wondering why Lily wouldn't tell her who the guy was. It wasn't hard: just open mouth, say name, close mouth, and let Rose explode.

Anyway.

She decided to sit at the Gryffindor table when she saw Hugo sitting with Al. She squeezed herself in between them and began to reach for the porridge. Al and Hugo made faces at her; they thought she was weird for eating it for it looked and smelled strange. Al had managed to eat half a bowl after he had practically drowned it in honey.

When Emily sat next to Al, they began to talk, so Rose turned to Hugo to call him out.

"Does she really have a boyfriend?" Hugo nodded while chewing on his toast.

"_Yes_. Are you really _that_ curious to know who he is?"

Rose thought a bit. Maybe she _was_ getting a little over her head about something as silly as this. "No," she finally said firmly. Hugo grinned and piled some sausage onto his plate.

_Now I can relax. It's _not_ that big a deal_ she thought positively whilst blowing on the slightly hot porridge before spooning some into her mouth. She was eating it quietly and noticed that Lily had entered the hall. Rose was getting ready to smile and greet her for the day, but she wasn't headed for the Gryffindor table as usual.

_Odd_ she mused. Her dark blue eyes followed her little cousin as she made her way over to the Slytherin table. Rose forgot all about the porridge in her mouth as she looked over at the green clad people. Her eyes stopped when they landed on their target. There he was, sitting alone.

Lily kept going and seated herself next to Scorpius who smiled at her.

_Aha_ she thought. Unbeknownst to her, though, were two things: someone else was had just come into the Great Hall and was going to said table and there was a trail of porridge sliding down her chin. She did have good table manners, but she wanted to see what was going to happen. That was no excuse for letting food come back out of her mouth, however.

As she was about to say something to her little brother, the person came over and in between Lily and Scorpius. Rose looked on as Lily smiled and hugged the person and completely ignored Scorpius to talk to him.

_Thank goodness _she sighed _well, not about him being ignored _she corrected. Next to her, Hugo began to laugh.

"I hope you know that's supposed to stay in your mouth, not dribble down your front." When Rose was about to ask what he was talking about, some oats fell onto her uniform. Hugo laughed more as Rose quickly wiped her mouth off with a napkin and cleaned the mess up.

"Whatever, Hugo – " Rose stopped as she saw someone to her left stand. Albus had apparently just noticed his little sister was at the Slytherin table because he was headed over in that direction right then.

"What's he about to do?" Rose asked Emily. She only shrugged. Rose didn't know if she wanted to follow or stay behind and watch the scene unfold. She stood abruptly and went after Al; this way she could hear what was going on.

He was nearly there when she caught up to him.

"Al! Al! What are you doing?" She slowed down next to him and looked at his face. He didn't look mad or anything of the sorts. Unless it was just her eyes playing tricks on her. Al looked at her for a moment and seemed to do a double take. When he was gazing forward again, he smiled.

"Rose, you do know you have some food on your face?" Rose's eyes widened and she grabbed the nearest napkin from a table and wiped all around her face before looking down at her uniform once more. Al laughed and she glared at him.

"Whatever; this coming from the guy who has a toast crumb beard," she said. Albus only shrugged and wiped his chin with the back of his sleeve.

"Ew! Now you got your sleeve all dirty!" Al glimpsed at his sleeve and before Rose could shove him away, he had wiped the back of his sleeve down her arm. She resisted the shriek that wanted to come out and glared out Albus yet again.

"That any better?" he joked. She shoved him and tried to clean her arm off as best as she could. She turned the down the aisle behind him and tagged along her favorite cousin as he walked toward Lily, her boyfriend, and Scorpius. Rose swallowed and tapped Albus on his shoulder.

"What?" he asked without turning around.

"Let's not do anything rash, okay?" she said.

"Who said I was?" Rose hit his back.

"You better not," she said. He just waved his hand over his shoulder. Rose's mouth almost opened as she watched Albus create a space for himself between Henri and Scorpius.

"Come, Rose. Sit," he said as he looked at Henri.

In a row, it was Lily, Henri, Albus, and Scorpius. She thought about going over and sitting next to Lily, but thought they wouldn't really be paying attention to Scorpius and how he had sat next to her on September first, so she quickly sat down on his right before she changed her mind. He smiled at her and she returned it, hoping Albus wouldn't be too long as she would probably blush herself into a coma.

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**A/N: **I hope you liked this chapter and sorry for not posting yesterday; I had a boatload full of homework. :) Reviews are the best!

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	11. A Quidditch Magazine

**A/N: **Thanks for the reviews! They make me so happy! Anyway, on with the story! :) Right after the disclaimer!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter.'

* * *

I looked up just as a Gryffindor had pushed himself into the seat to my left and a Ravenclaw to my right. I smiled at Rose the Ravenclaw and watched as she returned it before I turned back to my breakfast and Albus the Gryffindor.

"So, Lily, this is the guy, huh?" Albus asked innocently. Lily leaned over and nodded.

"Yes, this is Henri. That's just one of my two mental brothers," she added to him.

"I do believe we have met," Henri said to Albus. Albus ignored that.

"Lily," he said, "He's a _Slytherin_. They got into this house for a reason." My first thoughts were what in Merlin's beard was going through this guy's head. Wasn't he just talking to Henri on the day we rode in the same carriage?

"Albus – " Lily tried.

"Ah, but – but," he said, holding up a finger, "I'm not done yet. Don't try any dirty tricks, okay? And, I noticed that magazine you gave my cousin that one day and was wondering if I could borrow it or if you could tell me where you got it." Now I was thoroughly confused.

So was my best mate. "That's – that's it?" he asked cautiously.

"Oh, hurt her and I'll hurt you and all that other overly protective big brother stuff. Now back to the magazine?"

"Albus, you git! You came all the way over here for a Quidditch magazine?" Rose had begun to speak. Albus turned to her.

"Yeah. Why?"

"You ruined Lily's breakfast for a _book_? Come on. Lily, we'll just go. Sorry you two, for his actions." I watched with a smile as Rose stood and brought her cousin to his feet.

"But, Rose," he started.

"Stuff it, Al," she said and they began to walk away from the table. I quickly turned to Henri and saw he had begun talking with Lily again. I didn't know if I wanted to spend breakfast alone or not, but my mouth had already decided for me.

"You guys can stay over here if you want." They stopped and looked at me. Albus was more than happy to agree and was already sitting next to me where Rose had previously been. We looked at her and she walked back over and took the seat on my left. No one said anything and I wished I would've thought this through before talking.

"Um, do you know where Henri got the Quidditch book from?" Albus said with a hopeful smile toward me. I grinned and nodded and I told him about his subscription and such.

I saw that Rose wasn't speaking and how Albus would bring her into the conversation with simple questions like "You know where that is, right?" and "Didn't you go there before?" I wondered why she wasn't talking and thought that it was because she was at the Slytherin table. That couldn't be right, though, because she wasn't anything like that, but I didn't say anything to her for fear I would upset or scare her and hoped she wouldn't think of that as being rude or anything. Quite frankly, I didn't know what I would say to her if I even tried to converse with her.

The next morning, I noticed that Lily was eating at the Gryffindor table. Henri decided to sleep in and wake up at the last moment to get ready for class, so I was alone at the Slytherin table today unless someone came and sat with me.

I sighed and reached for some sausage. This was going to be quite boring if someone didn't approach me soon. The Great Hall doors had opened and I saw that Albus and Rose had entered. They were talking and heading for what seemed to be the Ravenclaw table. I frowned slightly and saw they had indeed chosen to sit there.

That came as a bit of a shock to me, but I had to expect it. Why would they need to sit and talk with me when Henri and Lily weren't here? Thus, for that breakfast I was so bored that I actually got up to go to class early. For lunch and dinner, I always had Henri with or without Lily. Of course, when Lily was at the Slytherin table, I'd be bored out of my mind, but sometimes they included me in their conversation.

One day, it was kind of late in the afternoon, but I headed for lunch anyway to see if I could get something to eat. I was going in and nearly bumped into someone coming out. When I saw who I had crashed into, I nodded and was about to issue an apology when he spoke.

"Hey, Scorpius, how's it going?" I was going to answer, but he interrupted me again. "Good, good. I was wondering – would you mind giving this to Rose? I was headed to her now, but I sorta saw that there was treacle tart on the table and . . . " I looked down in his hands and saw a package.

"Sure, no problem." I shrugged. He smiled and handed me the package.

"Thanks." A silence fell over us for some time. "Well, I'm just going to go and grab some treacle tart now . . . " he said. As he turned, a question came to my mind.

"Wait, where is she right now?" He had already gone inside, but I could hear him say something like greenhouse.

Okay, now all I had to do was give her the package and walk away.

After I had looked around two greenhouses, I finally found the one she was sitting outside of. I also noticed she had a thick spellbook on her lap, and because of said thickness, I assumed she was doing her Arithmancy homework. The same homework that had made me late for lunch.

I walked up to her and had intended to say something about the box, but what came out instead was, "You know that isn't due until Wednesday, right?" I sounded pretty stupid, I knew that, but I hoped she wouldn't think that. She looked up at me, but didn't do anything for a few moments. When she nodded, I sat down beside her. I held the package out to her.

"This is yours. Albus would have delivered it to you himself, but he noticed some treacle tart and got a bit tied up." She took it, smiled, and I sat silently watching her open it. This wasn't part of the plan, and I didn't know why I was still sitting. When she saw me and nearly freaked out, I somewhat smiled. Maybe that's why I was still sitting here: I knew I was going to have some fun with her.

If you could call it what happened afterwards fun, though.

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**A/N:** If anyone's read my first story, then you'd know what would happen next. But if you haven't, I'll explain what happened in the next chapter in the author's note. I hope I didn't leave a big hole there, though. Please review! :)

Albus, Albus, Albus, you crazy Quidditch fan! :)

Oh, and for some reason, in this story I made Rose a Ravenclaw and in 'Their First Conversation' I made her a Gryffindor. Hopefully that doesn't confuse anyone. I have no clue why I did that, but when a good excuse comes to me, I'll let you know. :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	12. What's the Matter?

**A/N: **I decided to do a double post today. Why? I have no idea. But, I'll post two chapters on Valentine's Day if you like. :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter.'

* * *

Rose walked had up the stairs, but when she couldn't be seen anymore, she ran up the rest of the stairs, located the Ravenclaw room, answered the riddle, and ran to the dorm she shared with some of her friends.

_Why did I do that?_ She thought _well, he did help me in the time I really needed and it only seemed appropriate, so I guess that's why I did. _Rose nodded; her thoughts always helped her in times like this. Well, _most_ of them did anyway.

She checked the time and saw it was two minutes after seven. It was a Saturday morning, so she decided to take a nice, hot shower before getting Emily and heading downstairs to get some breakfast.

Rose and Emily were laughing and talking on their way to breakfast thirty minutes later when Albus showed up behind them. It was only when he yawned loudly that the two girls turned their attention to him. He smiled.

"So, what're we talking about?" he asked, trying to pat his hair down. Rose laughed at his actions and tried to smooth down the left side of his hair. She gave up when it kept bouncing back up.

"Nothing," she said. Emily nodded in agreement.

"Okay . . . So who or what is this nothing?" Albus wriggled his eyebrows up and down. While Emily laughed, Albus bent down to whisper in Rose's ear. "And what happened to Scorpius?" Rose whacked him, but he just smiled. He moved in between Emily and Rose, placed his arms around their shoulders and they continued on.

When they had entered the Great Hall, Rose had expected to feel the pressure from her cousin's arms still around her shoulders, but said pressure suddenly disappeared. Emily had kept on going to save their seats, but Rose stopped and turned to see where Al had scampered off to. When she saw where he was headed, she didn't know what to think. She knew she said she hoped that they would spend more time together, but not now! She needed time to let this soak in!

She turned from Al and walked over to Emily at the Ravenclaw table. She then picked up a spoon to dig into some porridge and pretend she hadn't just seen where Albus had just wandered off to. Apparently, Emily had just noticed where one – third of their little group had gone.

"Rose, look at Albus. He's talking with Scorpius. Should we join him?" Rose glared at the smile on Emily's face; she knew about how Rose felt about Scorpius. They were best friends after all.

"No, I don't think we should go over there," she replied, placing the spoon in her mouth to eat the porridge. Emily smiled and bit into some toast.

"Whatever, Rose. You know you want to," Rose's friend said when she had finished her toast. Rose's dark blue eyes gazed over at Emily's light green ones and she glared again. Emily smirked victoriously.

"Fine, we'll sit here, eat breakfast, and be bored when we could've been over there having an invigorating conversation with the guy of your dreams." Rose let the words sink in, but pretended she hadn't heard her and kept on eating. When her friend didn't say anything for the next two minutes, Rose sighed thinking she was finally going to let it go.

Well, she was wrong.

Three minutes later Rose could hear a sigh from her right. She ignored it. It came again. Once more she ignored. But when it kept coming every now and then, she couldn't take any notice of it for it was just too _annoying_.

"Yes, Emily?" she asked. The girl in question was about to respond when someone came over and sat next to Rose. The two girls looked at the visitor curiously. What was she doing over here? The third year noticed then staring at her and smiled.

"Hello, Rose, Emily," she said whilst scooping some eggs onto her plate.

"Hello, Lily," Emily said. Rose was still looking curious with a little confusion mixed in.

"Hi, Lily," she finally managed to say. Lily smiled again and ate some of her eggs. "What're you doing?" she added in. It was Lily's turn to look confused.

"Um, eating eggs?" the redhead said.

Rose nodded slowly. "Oh. Cool." Emily had an eyebrow raised at her friend's strangeness all of a sudden. She tucked some of her black hair behind her ear before she nudged Rose.

"What's the matter?" she asked. Rose only shook her head and turned back to her cousin.

"How come you're not eating breakfast with Henri like you always have?" Lily shrugged.

"He slept in today, I guess," she responded. At the same time she said that, the Great Hall doors opened and welcomed Henri into the area.

"Great timing, huh?" Emily asked with a smile to Lily. Lily didn't respond, but kept on eating, acting like she hadn't just seen her boyfriend enter. Rose glanced at Emily who looked equally as perplexed. Could she not hear them?

"Um, Lily, Henri's right over there. How come you're not going to sit with him or with your friends – " Rose started.

"Do you guys hate me?" Lily said suddenly, looking up at them. Just as they were going to answer, Lily went on. "If you don't, why are you trying to get rid of me? I'm not _that_ bad of company, am I?" Emily had an apologetic look on her face, but Rose stayed unfazed. She had seen acts just like this.

"You've been hanging out with Hugo, huh?" Rose asked, smiling. Lily looked up at her and smiled too.

"Yeah. He's really great at that." The redhead was of course hoping they would turn their attention away from her, but they didn't.

"Are you guys in a fight or something?" Emily asked.

"Who? Me and Hugo? No, we get along just fine." Emily rolled her eyes at the comment and let Rose have a shot at her family.

Rose said, "Ha, ha, very funny. She meant you and Henri."

"No."

"Okay, so you just wanted to spend some time with us, is that it?"

"Yes, it's exactly that! I mean, can't I sit with family and a friend without being questioned?"

"Okay." The three girls sat; the two Ravenclaws were wondering when the Gryffindor was going to start a discussion if she was willing to give up spending time with her boyfriend. She never did start talking, she just went on eating. When she had finished, she stood up, bid them a goodbye and left.

"That was weird," Emily said, drinking some Pumpkin juice.

"Yeah," Rose agreed. Her eyes were searching for someone.

There he was.

He was sitting next to Scorpius and Al, but he looked different.

As if he was sad or regretted doing something.

This only spiked Rose's curiosity more.

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**A/N: **I hoped you enjoyed this chapter! Reviews would be nice! :)

The beginning of this chapter kind of picks up after my other story 'Their First Conversation.' If you don't feel like reading it, I'll summarize it for you. Scorpius helped Rose when she was feeling under the weather. When she found out what he did for her, she kissed him on the cheek and walks off, the rest starting at the begining of this chapter. I know: corny, but I liked typing it. :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	13. It's the Road

**A/N:** It was awesome writing this chapter! Can you guess what the title means before one character explains it? :)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter.'

* * *

For the next month, Lily would sometimes sit with me and Emily. Some days she would sit with her friends Phoenix and Andi or with family and other days, to our relief, she would sit with Henri. She would just look a little . . . nervous whilst doing so. Well, that was my opinion at least. No one else seemed to notice it besides me. Or that was what I had thought.

Emily and I parted in the halls one Friday afternoon after classes – she went up the stairs to catch some sleep and I was going to the library to try and finish the last bit of my essay for Charms. I waved to the librarian, found a table in the middle, and had pulled out my essay and a book to work. I sniffed contently at the smell of the ink and parchment while listening to the noise my quill would make as I wrote. This was nice and peaceful.

That is, until the chair across from me moved and someone plopped down in it. I didn't look up because of the smell the person had; it was distracting. It smelled like peppermints and boy was it strong. But it did smell delicious. The scent wasn't anything I had smelled of a perfume before . . .

"Hello," the person said.

And the voice wasn't one that sounded like a girl.

I looked up and put on a smile though I knew it was pitiful. I silently cleared my throat before replying.

"Hi. Are you here to get some homework done or something? Or did you need some help? I can help you if you need it as soon as I finish this right here. Is that okay?" Merlin, I was rambling. Why was I rambling? There was no need to be because if I started rambling, I was soon to blush. And if I blush – Merlin! I was doing it again! But this time, in my thoughts!

He smiled, but didn't say anything. His smile was weak – something was wrong . . .

And he came to me for help!

But, we barely knew each other, so he could just be over here to ask for help on some homework.

After an awkward silence, I finally said, "Do you need help with Potions? I know a really great book about how to mix them and such." I had risen from my chair, about to go check and see if the book was still among the shelves.

"No, I don't," he said. I stopped and looked at him. His dark locks seemed a little messier than usual and his smile wasn't on his face as it usually was. Other than that he seemed normal: his robes were neat and tidy and he could still be called handsome or cute by most – or maybe all – of the girl population. I blinked a few times and licked my lips.

"Okay," I started slowly, "Did you need something?" He was about to say something when it clicked. "Oh! I know what the problem is." I began packing my things. When I was almost done, Henri spoke.

"What're you doing?" he asked. I ran my fingers diagonally through my bangs.

"Isn't this your table? I thought that maybe I was in your way and I was about to leave. I can finish this elsewhere. It won't be too hard." I shrugged.

"This isn't my table; do you honestly think I'd have a _table_ in the _library_? That would mean I come in here on a regular basis." I smiled.

"My mistake." I waited for him to say or do anything. The silence started again and I was going to say something, but his cologne just smelled too good. When I could get a clear head, I decided to stop beating around the bush and to get some answers.

"Okay, Henri, look: I noticed you haven't been yourself for some time – just like Lily. No one else may have seen through those expressions, but I have and I want to know what's wrong. If you'll let me know, of course," I added in that last sentence so I wouldn't sound too rude or bossy. I watched as he dropped his backpack on the ground beside his seat and sigh.

"You're not the only who noticed. Scorpius has and he confronted me about it, but I knew he would laugh in my face if I told him what happened, the git." I was going to say something along the lines of "aren't you two friends?" when I saw him smile and realized it was just a joke between them. "So, I made an excuse and decided to go to the place that was quiet enough so I could think, but I was too lazy to climb up to the Astronomy Tower and I somehow ended up here." He scratched the back of his head.

I laughed. "Okay, so what's the problem? I know it has something to do with you and Lily, right?" He nodded. I was waiting for him to say anything when he did something that made me smile.

He blushed.

A slight shade of pink spread across his light toffee colored face. I looked on as he averted his eyes and lowered his head. I waited patiently and he finally looked up.

"Well, it's kind of embarrassing and I barely know you, no offense and – "

"It's okay. You've known Scorpius forever and didn't tell him any of this, so it's nice you trust me somewhat." He smiled at me. There was more silence, but it wasn't as awkward. I sighed and began unpacking again. I could feel Henri's warm brown eyes gaze at me while doing so. Once I had finished placing everything back on the table, I looked up at Henri and smiled.

"Well, I'm just going to complete this essay. It'll probably be really boring, so you can leave if you want. Unless you haven't gotten through with your silent thinking," I said.

His hand rose and patted his head. "I'll wait for you; maybe this way we can become better friends?" I nodded and started again on the essay to finish it. Once I started I became so absorbed in it, my quill forming the words that came to mind. I loved that feeling.

I was so absorbed, apparently, that I hadn't noticed Henri stand up and walk behind me. That was at the time I had just finished the last sentence and was crossing the last 't.' At the time I was going to reread over to check for mistakes, the parchment was snatched off the table from above. I gaped and looked over my shoulder to see a certain Zabini smirking mischievously down at me.

I stood slowly and turned toward him. He looked as though he was reading it, but when he saw I was on my feet, he put my essay out of my reach. Since I was at least five or six inches shorter than him, standing on my very tiptoes wasn't going to help much.

"Um, Henri, what are you doing?" My eyes widened when he had taken his wand out.

"Oh, just making some alterations, is all," he said. And I watched as he tapped his wand once against my parchment. One paragraph was scribbled out in black ink. I put my hands on hips and glared him.

"Is that all you got? I can just use the counterspell to get rid of it." He raised an eyebrow.

"You think I'd let you off _that_ easy?" And then he tapped his wand twice and another paragraph was scribbled out – but this time in dark purple ink. How had he done that? My hands fell from my hips; I gaped for the second time that day, and saw him smirk at me. I was about to start begging when I thought I heard someone behind me. Whipping around, I saw there wasn't anyone there and focused back on Lily's boyfriend.

"Come on! I thought we were on the road to friendship," I pleaded.

"We are; this is how I start."

"Har har," I said. I was about to try again when a hand whisked from behind the bookshelf to my right – Henri's left – and grabbed my essay. For the third time today, I gaped. But Henri didn't look in the bit unfazed. He was smiling and had turned to where the hand had come from. I walked up some behind Henri and waited.

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**A/N: **So, what happened between Henri and Lily? Who snatched up Rose's essay? One question will be answered in the next chapter. The other won't be answered until a later chapter. :)

Who do you think grabbed the essay from Henri? Review, please! :)

In an upcoming chapter (Chap. 15), someone makes a reappearance. But who it is and why? Yes, they had their own little chapter in this story if that helps any. Once again, can you guess who this person is? If you please, you can answer the questions in a comment/review. :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	14. Are you Blushing?

**A/N: **Here is Chapter 14! Okay, for the questions: _lilyalicezoe_ was right about who took the essay as was _Future Miss Fred Weasley_. _Marciabarcia_ was right about who makes an appearance even though I don't think she was answering that question, but she was right anyway. :) Thank you guys for guessing! :)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter.'

* * *

I really hadn't believed Henri when he said he was stopping in the library to check out a book. That had _nothing_ to do with what I had asked ("What's your problem?") so I set off in search for him. I checked in the places he usually went when something was bothering him – the kitchens, the Great Hall, the Prefects bathroom, the Paved Courtyard, the Astronomy Tower. But when I saw he wasn't in any of these places, I put in consideration that he had actually went to the library and steered in that direction.

I smiled at the librarian and began the hunt for my best mate. It was around the middle of the library did I hear some frantic whispering. I strained my ears to try and hear more, but it became quiet again. I was about to turn at the next bookcase when I saw that was where the people were. And those people were my best mate and my best mate's girlfriend's cousin.

Making up my mind, I quickly darted from my hiding place to the next bookcase up from said hiding place. From here I listened intently before creeping up and looking carefully around the corner as to not get caught. I could see that Rose was trying to get her parchment back from Henri who had it posed over his head where she obviously couldn't reach it. I smiled. Well, I could be a gentleman again, couldn't I?

I counted out in my head when to make a move. When I got to the number, I moved some books on the bookshelf aside a little so I could see where to reach out. Then I moved closer to the corner of the bookshelf and whizzed my hand out around it. When my hand came into contact with slightly rough surface, I closed my hand around it and pulled back. Luckily, Henri wasn't clutching it too tightly. I smiled and waited for one of them to say something. Not too long after, my best mate's voice came out, somewhat loud and somewhat quiet. We were in a library after all.

"Hey, mate, you cheated!"

I came from behind the bookcase and revealed myself to them. I nodded toward Henri.

"Yes, actually. Yes I did. What're you doing with an essay that doesn't belong to you anyway?" Henri grinned and pointed to Rose who was standing there staring at us.

"It's hers. I was just showing her that we were on the way to friendship when you interrupted." I smiled and placed it upon the table. Henri and I watched as she picked it up, a frown on her face. I looked confused as to why she didn't look happy to have it back when I saw Henri had his wand out. I shook my head; this kid was out of control.

"May I?" I asked her. She looked up, startled, as if she had forgotten we were here. She handed the parchment to me and I pulled my wand and fixed the purple and black blotches for her.

"Thank you," she said happily to me before she turned to glare at Henri. While she turned to pack up her supplies, I glanced over at Henri.

Uh oh.

This was bad – it looked as though he was _thinking_.

Don't get me wrong; Henri was smart and had plenty of brilliant ideas. The problem? He almost never let anyone in on them and this looked as if he wasn't going to let me in on it. I was going to call him out on it when Rose spoke.

"Oh, you guys are still here? You didn't have to wait; I can make it back to the Ravenclaw common room." Henri stooped down to pick up his backpack while I picked up Rose's before she could.

"No problem at all," Henri said, "After all, we _are_ on the road to friendship. _All_ of us are." He was initially standing on the left of Rose, but he moved so that he was in the middle of us. There he put his arms around us while he had a smile on his face. Rose smiled nervously and I just looked amused.

"You still have to explain some things to me," I whispered to him. He didn't look at me, but he did kind of nod his head.

"Thanks again," Rose said to me as I handed the backpack to her. She smiled at us and we left as she walked into the portrait after the riddle was answered. I looked at Henri and saw he didn't look as though he was going to start talking. That was okay with me; I could force it out of him. I began to nudge him with my elbow. I wasn't going to let up until he said something. He must've found out because he grinned and turned to me.

"Something you needed or were you having some sort of elbow spasm?" I grinned at the familiar words and shrugged.

"I was just wondering if you were ever going to tell me what you deal is. You know you'll have to tell me some time and you might want to tell me now while I'm not in my scandal mood." Henri glanced at me and smiled. We both knew that I wasn't the one for gossip, but it wasn't too late to start, right?

"Okay, okay. I'll tell you – just not here," he said, looking around to make sure we weren't being followed or listened in on. I shoved my hands into my pockets.

"Is it really that embarrassing?" I joked. When he didn't answer, I thought maybe it was that embarrassing and saw something on his face. Something that made me laugh out loud.

"Are you _blushing_?" I said in between laughs. He glowered at me.

"Well, wait until the day comes when _you_ blush and see what _I_ say." I laughed again, but nodded. That was a great point. But when was I ever going to blush?

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**A/N: **I'm thinking about doing a double post tomorrow. Reviews would be nice! :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	15. What about Lily?

**A/N: **Double post today! Happy Valentine's Day! :)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter.'

* * *

A shadow suddenly appeared on the grass next to Rose. She looked up and smiled at her little brother. After she had moved her books, he sat down and placed his own books in front of him.

"What're you doing out here?" he asked. She shrugged.

"I'm just getting some fresh air. What about you?"

"I got bored and saw you out here." Rose turned to him, an expression of shock etched on her face.

"_You_ got bored at _lunch_? What has the world come to?" Hugo grinned and nodded.

"It's coming to an end, but I know one way to make it stop," he said. Rose reached over, opened a box of chocolates, and offered him one before asking the question she knew he wanted to hear.

"Really? Do tell then," she said, biting into a piece of chocolate herself.

When he had swallowed, he said, "You," he pointed to Rose, "have to help me," he pointed to himself, "with this Potions essay," he pointed to a somewhat thick book in front of him. Rose smiled and set the box of chocolates in the middle of them and held out her hands for him to pass the book over.

"Okay, what's it you need help with?" Hugo smiled in relief and began explaining to her where his class was and why he hadn't bothered to do it himself.

"And so, the chocolate éclair got me really full, making me unable to concentrate on any homework," he concluded. Rose had both of her eyebrows raised and a tiny smile was playing on her lips.

"Is that so? When did you learn you needed to finish the essay?"

"Um – I believe . . . about two weeks ago?" Hugo shrugged sheepishly.

"When is it due?" she asked.

"This Friday." Rose nodded.

"So you've had a chocolate éclair for fifteen days?" Hugo sighed.

"Okay, okay! I procrastinated! Are you happy? Now can you please help me?" Rose smiled and helped him get the gist of what the essay was about. Then she let him sit and write the article while she waited to check over it for him. Once in a while, she'd see him run his tongue over his braces or stop and look for something in the book and she'd smile. He was doing _homework_ and _quietly_ too.

During the now quiet time, Rose went back gazing out at the Black Lake and occasionally feeling over for another piece of chocolate. When a shadow materialized to her right where Hugo was sitting, she thought he had stood up. But when another shadow came next to the first one, Rose looked up. But she didn't have the chance to look all the way up because a face appeared right in front of hers. She blinked a few times, trying to hide the look of alarm, but she knew she failed.

"Hey, Rose, dearest," Henri said. He looked over at Hugo who hadn't noticed that two other people had joined. Rose watched as Henri cocked his head to the side, his hair falling slightly out of place.

"Rose!" he finally said. "He looks just like you!" Rose didn't think so, though. The only thing they had in common was their hair color – auburn, a mix of their mum and dad's. Scorpius sat down next to Henri who, still in front of Rose, had dropped to his knees. Suddenly, Hugo snapped the Potions shut.

"Thanks Rose! I'll just leave this here with you so you can read over it. The password to get into the common room is _Mediterranean_, but I'll most likely be in the Great Hall." Then he grabbed his books and strolled off. Rose wondered how he hadn't noticed Scorpius and Henri when he stopped abruptly in his tracks and came back.

"I just noticed," he said, looking at Rose's friends, "that you still have some chocolates left. Can I have them?" Before she could answer, he grinned. "I was joking." He turned to two the fifth year boys again. "I've heard about you," he said to Henri. "But in recent days, I've noticed something was off, yet I won't ask you anything for it's not my business, right?" Henri gave him a grin and Hugo looked at Scorpius.

"And you," he began, "I've heard _so_ much about you." Scorpius looked confused and Rose knew that if she shoved Hugo and told him to go away that'd she would give something away, so she thought of a backup plan. She quickly picked up a piece of the remaining chocolates and flung it at Hugo.

"I thought you were leaving?" she said, trying to sound nonchalant. Her brother smiled, showing his braces.

"I was. Thanks for the chocolates," he said, but before he stood to leave again, he held the box out to Henri and Scorpius. "Chocolate?" They each took one. "And by the way, my name's Hugo and I am her brother. Just come to me if you want to know any embarrassing stuff about my dear sister here." Rose picked up the chocolate she had thrown at Hugo and repeated the action. Hugo stood, pointed at the essay, and walked off again.

"Will do, my good mate!" Henri called after him. The three could see Hugo turn around. He had a big smile and was holding his hand up in a shape: a thumbs up. Rose rolled her eyes and smiled. Henri chuckled and Scorpius had a smile on his face.

Rose picked up Hugo's Potions essay and placed it in one of her books for later. "Okay, so what do I owe this pleasant visit?" Since the day they had met up with her in the library three days ago, the two Slytherins would always find and hang out with her. They were on the road to friendship as Henri would never stop saying. When she had asked if he would ever stop saying that phrase, he had said when he was sure they were all buddies.

"We got bored," Scorpius said simply. Rose watched as he ate his chocolate and quickly averted her eyes when he looked up at her.

"So we were thinking, the Hogsmeade trips begin next month – " Henri said.

"Next week," Rose corrected. Henri paused and looked at her.

"It's actually next month," he said.

"Which is technically next week," Rose said with a smile.

"But it's in the next month," Henri argued. When Rose made to say a comeback, he went on, knowing he would lose. "Okay, okay. Anyway, we were wondering if you would accompany us," he concluded. Just as she was about to comply, a thought came to her.

"What about Lily?" Henri kind of stiffened, but he regained his serenity and stood up.

"See you at Hogsmeade!" he said, completely ignoring her question. Then he began to walk off.

Rose looked over at Scorpius. He shrugged.

"See you at Hogsmeade?" he asked. She couldn't help the smile that emerged on her face.

"Okay," she said in what she hoped to be a casual voice. He grinned at her and picked himself off the ground and went off in the direction Henri had gone. Rose happily smiled again, picked her items up, and left to go to the Ravenclaw common room.

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**A/N:** Chapter 16 is next! I didn't really like it because I got somewhat lazy when writing it. :) Reviews would be nice!

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	16. Her name's Viola

**A/N: **Double post today! Happy Valentine's Day! :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter.'

* * *

"Get up," I said for maybe the tenth time that morning. The person I was trying to wake up just mumbled incoherently and turned away from me. Well, there was only one thing left to do if he wouldn't get up. Boy was he going to get mad, but hey, it wasn't my fault.

I stood and closed the hangings around his bed. No one else was in the room as they all went down to get some breakfast before classes which meant they wouldn't be able to witness this brilliant show (or get mad at me as well). Making sure that the hangings were brought together almost all the way, I stepped back into the section of my own bed and closed their hangings. Then, taking a deep breath, I stuck my wand out between the slit in the curtains where they didn't really meet, and pointed it at Henri's bed before muttering a spell.

Next thing I know, I see a bright flash of light, hear something thump against the floor, and the light disappeared. Ah, wasn't that a nice spell? I woke Henri up and managed to hurt him and it was still morning. I could hear him stagger to his feet so I quickly hid my wand under my pillow and grabbed a book to pretend I was reading.

"Did you know that chocolate éclairs are a favorite of muggles and wizards alike?" I asked innocently when a dull light shone in. I looked up into the face of Henri. "Mate, you look awful, what happened?" He glared at me before snatching the book that I was holding.

"Éclairs, huh? You read that from a _Transfiguration_ book?" he asked, acting like he hadn't heard my other comment. I shrugged.

"When you know it, you know it." He grinned and threw the book at my face before I had the chance to counter it and slumped off to get ready. I leaned back against my pillows after removing my wand and placing it on my desk and closed my eyes to wait.

"Are we going directly to class or are we going to go get some breakfast?" My eyes flew back open. He was standing in front of my four poster bed in his school robes, currently trying to fix his tie. That was quick.

"Breakfast," we both said at the same time.

In the Great Hall, I was about to enjoy an egg sandwich when I was nudged in my side. I bit into the food before turning to Henri. He nodded his head to the Great Hall doors.

"Look who's leaving," he said. I glanced in that direction and saw that Rose was exiting the room. Recently, I got to wondering if Henri had developed romantic feelings for her. After all, he and Lily were acting kind of stiff toward each other, but hey, I _still_ didn't know the full story of what happened. Maybe he'd tell me during the trip to Hogsmeade in a couple of days.

Before I could take another bite of the warm and yummy food, Henri stood up and yanked me to my feet. "Come on, let's follow her to class. Maybe we can bother her or something." I grabbed another egg sandwich and wrapped it up in a napkin before taking the one I was presently eating and picking up my backpack.

"Okay," I said, following his lead out of the hall. Of course we wouldn't have been able to see her immediately in the halls as she left way before we did, but we had the same class with her first in the morning – Charms. I was happily eating my breakfast and listening to Henri talk when we were intercepted by a Professor. Professor Longbottom to be more exact.

"Mr. Malfoy, if I could please see you for a moment?" I swallowed the best I could.

"Sir, I might be late for Charms," I said lamely.

"I'll excuse you," he said simply and the next thing I know I'm trailing behind him to the Herbology Greenhouses. Behind me I could hear Henri snicker as he made his way to bother Rose and Charms class. I made a mental note to get him back later.

In his office, Professor Longbottom took a seat and offered the one across from him to me. I sat down and absentmindedly bit into my sandwich. When I finally noticed what I had did, I swallowed and threw the food into my backpack before turning back to pay attention. I could tell he wanted to smile, but was holding it back. Finally, he spoke.

"Scorpius, I've noticed that your Herbology grade has been declining ever since . . ." he paused; I think he was trying to find a nice way to say the next thing on his mind. "Ever since I placed you next to Viola Parkinson." So much for nice.

Viola Parkinson was a Slytherin like me and unlike her mum, she was quite a looker. She had the typical blonde hair and blue eyes, but something about her accentuated them, making her look gorgeous. Ever since the Professor placed me next to her, she's been a real flirt. I mean, all those little touching me "accidentally" or asking me one of the stupidest questions just to talk. Don't get me wrong, though; I kind of liked the attention.

All of a sudden I heard a snapping noise. I looked over at my instructor and saw he was smiling and had been the source of the noise. He had been snapping his fingers in my face apparently.

"Thinking about Miss Parkinson, are we?" I'm not sure about him, but I was. I shook my head.

"No, sir," I lied. He looked as though he knew better, but didn't say anything.

"Okay, well since your grade's been slowly decreasing, it's my job to either tutor you or help you find a tutor. Oh, and I'll have to move you from your current seat somewhere else. More preferably the front so you can pay attention to my lectures?" Oh, so he _was_ evil on the inside, huh?

A tutor or be tutored by him? Which shall I choose? Wait a second, there has to be some sort of a loophole here . . .

"By saying you'll help me find one, does that mean you're going to choose someone or I get to choose someone?" I asked him.

"I have to choose them because there are potential students you'll choose just so you can talk to them. Then your grade will decline even more if possible," he explained, "But I could make a list of those students I'd recommend for you." I shook my head.

"You can go ahead and choose if you like, Professor." This was a probable mistake, but I just wanted to bring my grade up and maybe getting him to choose would move it along.

He nodded. "Okay, I'll get back to you on who will be your tutor. You may leave and just explain you were with me if the professor requests," he interjected when I was about to ask. I nodded and left.

Roaming the halls, I sluggishly made my way to the Charms classroom. Then I came to a shortcut to the hall where the class was, but I ignored it and kept going the long way and at my unhurried pace. I cut the next corner sharply when I had almost crashed into a wall. I still crashed, just not with a wall. I looked down at who I had collided with and held my hand out.

I had to learn to stop bumping into people.

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**A/N:** Not the best of chapters, but I hope you still liked. :) Reviews would be nice! :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	17. Dizzy with Delight

**A/N:** Chapter 17! I don't really like it, but I hope you enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter.'

* * *

Rose had somehow landed on the ground and was about to pick herself up when something came into her line of vision.

A hand.

She hesitantly grasped it and the person pulled her to her feet. She looked into his face and smiled.

"Hey, Scorpius. Where were you? The class ends in like thirty minutes or so." Scorpius shrugged and fell into step with her where he had just been.

"Eh, Professor Longbottom needed me for something or another. The question is why you, little miss bookworm, are not in class right now."

"I was given the task to go and get some Charms book from the library that we don't have in the classroom. It just came out so I think there won't be that many copies left, but the professor insisted."

Scorpius said, "I'll help you look then." Rose smiled, but then shook her head.

"Shouldn't you check in back at the classroom so you won't miss any important notes?"

"Nah, you're missing the same notes. This way we'll be even in Charms." Scorpius grinned when Rose laughed and they continued on to the library. On the way there, though, they were both silent, most likely waiting for the other person to say something. Rose was still thinking of something to say when Scorpius finally had thought of something.

"You still accompanying me and Henri to Hogsmeade?" Rose's thought to find something to say subsided and began jumping around in a happy like way.

_He wants to know if I'm still coming! _She thought _That must mean he wants to see me there! He's waiting for the day to come! . . . Or, he truly wants to know if you're coming._ Rose frowned at the thoughts from the back of her mind and nodded to Scorpius.

"Yes, I am still coming," she sighed. By this time they had made it to the library. Scorpius was going to keep going to the bookshelves, but had noticed that Rose was no longer beside him. She had turned when they had entered to the desk where the librarian was sitting. Figures she would rather ask about the book's whereabouts than look for it.

"Well, most of those copies seem to be checked out already," was what Scorpius heard as he walked to the front. "Sorry."

"It's okay; we can just go back to class," Rose said to the librarian intern.

"Or," Scorpius quickly interjected, "we could look around to see if there's one around. Who knows? There is a possibility." He put an arm around Rose's shoulders and directed her to the bookcases. Rose was dizzy with delight. She knew the only reason he had said that was because he wanted to put off going to class, but she didn't mind. Not _that_ much anyway.

She watched as he slung his pack on the top of the table and sat down. Just as he sat, he quickly stood and pulled a chair out for her to sit in. She smiled but didn't take the seat. He looked at her confused and she explained.

"Well, since you said we were going to look for it, we should start."

"Really?"

"Yeah. What're we going to tell the professor when we – or I rather since you were somewhere else – come back after, like, fifteen minutes?"

"We could lie and say we _did_ look for it."

"I can't lie to a teacher about something as stupid as that."

Scorpius was about to say something when that sentence strung a chord. "So what _would_ you lie to a teacher about? Or, rather, what _have_ you lied to a teacher about?" He observed as Rose turned so that her back was to him as if she was searching through the books. He could hear her say something, but only faintly.

He decided to egg her on some. "Huh?" he asked, cupping a hand to his ear. "Can't hear you."

She looked at him and it seemed as though she was going to repeat what she had said, when she paused. "Well, what's the point in telling you now? You might not hear it again." She smiled and swiveled back in the direction she was just in moments ago. Scorpius was on the verge of a comeback when she swiveled back to face him again, looking defeated.

"Okay, so you've seemingly found out my secret, but I'm not going to tell you what I've lied about – if I've lied at all of course. Can you please help me look?" Scorpius found that sentence somewhat ironic seeing as she said he found out her secret then implying she may have never lied at all. Nonetheless, though, he found himself nodding and he moved to the opposite bookcase.

"And who knows? Maybe you'll end up finding something you haven't noticed before," he could hear her say. He sighed and began to scan the spines of some books which ended being kind of difficult seeing as some books would magically float off their current shelf and go to another. Then other books would drift up behind him to get on the shelf he was in front of. He had to look back a couple of times for fear he would get hit by a book. After about ten minutes of the book hunt, he could hear the Ravenclaw sigh.

"Why don't we just give up?" she asked. "Quite frankly, I'm pretty tired of this and would rather be in class."

"Oh, miss bookworm running to get away from books? The world is coming to an end now, huh?" Rose smiled.

"Nope, the world will be coming to the end when Hugo actually does an essay on time," she said, remembering that day by the Black Lake. Scorpius bent down to pick up his backpack when he heard a soft _thump_. He stood and saw Rose was sitting on the ground rubbing the back of her head. He walked over so that he was in front of her and knelt down some.

"Stupid book," she muttered. Scorpius smiled and was about to stick his hand out so he could help her up again when he stopped. Something was different . . .

He had never been this close to her that he could actually look into her face before, but he did recall Henri having been this close and saw why he would like it. Rose looked so much different up close. And he meant different in a good way. Her scarce, but still there, freckles and rich colored auburn hair helped him pick out her dark blue eyes which, at the moment, were looking confused. Looking at her freckles made him look at her nose which led him to her lips.

He stared at her lips for a few seconds before looking back at her eyes, sticking out his hand to help her up, and walking back to the other side of the table.

"Should we be going, then?" he could hear her question. He nodded, grabbed his backpack, and followed Rose out the library, but not before waving at the librarian intern. Almost like when they were going to the library, there was silence.

But there was one thing Rose had been right about in the library. One thing that wouldn't leave his mind at the time being.

He _had_ found something he kind of hadn't noticed before, in a new light.

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**A/N:** I originally had the part where Scorpius discovers Rose in a "new light" different, but I hope you like it this way. Reviews would be nice! :) And yes, the ending _was _way too corny. :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	18. That was Easy

**A/N:** I was trying to improve this chapter seeing as it's kind of weird. I did the best I could, so I hope you'll enjoy! :) Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I like to type up chapters in advance and I caught up with where I left off! I got to get working, huh? :)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter.'

* * *

The day after I had that talk with Professor Longbottom was the day he had found me a tutor. He told me she (I raised my eyebrows when he said she) would meet me in the afternoon in the Herbology Greenhouses where we have our classes.

I went through the day wondering who my tutor was. In every class I had with a girl who shared my Herbology class I would glance at her for a moment. Would she be helping me with my grade? In reality, this was kind of embarrassing. I was supposed to have top marks, was I not? Plus, Professor Longbottom said my grade had been falling ever since he had placed me next to Viola. Well, here's a solution: move me _away_ from Viola. But, I couldn't say that without sounding somewhat rude, so I never said anything.

I trudged outside after my last class of the day and went to the greenhouses. As I was entering, Professor Longbottom was leaving.

"Ah, Mr. Malfoy, if you have any problems with her, just tell me and we can switch it up, okay?" I nodded, he clapped me on the back, and left.

If I had any problems; what did he mean by that?

I slowly walked into the greenhouse that was used for the Fifth – years. I was just inside enough so I could see who the person was, but they couldn't see me. I noticed her at a table in the back of the room. Since her back was to me, I couldn't really tell who it was. Then she flipped her hair.

Her long, blonde hair.

Three emotions ran through my mind.

The first was confusion. Hadn't the professor just said that my grade had dropped because of her? Hadn't he said he was going to move me _away_ from her? Then he turns right around and makes her my _tutor_? The person who's supposed to help me bring my grade up? Why was I asking myself so many questions?

The second was anger. I was going to have to sit through an hour and a half watching and listening to her flirt with me. I didn't even know if she was going to help me. Sure, I had liked the attention I had received from her in the past, but that kind of changed. Why? She was bloody _irritating_.

The third was disappointment. I was hoping that Professor Longbottom had gotten someone else. Anyone else would have been better, but there was a certain person. Someone with, say, dark blue eyes and auburn colored hair?

I tried to clear my mind and took some deep breaths before making myself known.

"Viola," I said in what I hoped to be a calm and casual voice. She turned from where she standing and smiled at me. She picked up her books and moved closer to the front.

"Scorpius," she said with a smile. "I couldn't believe it was you I was supposed to tutor. I always thought we were doing well in class, don't you?"

"Yeah," he lied, "Suppose I've been pretty distracted or something."

She nodded. "I understand; just like me in Transfiguration."

I stared at her since she really didn't catch on that she was the distraction. "Okay," I finally said, "what're we working on?" I moved over and set his book on the table beside her. When she batted her eyelashes at me and giggle, I changed his mind and when she wasn't looking, I moved over a considerable amount hoping she wouldn't notice.

* * *

"How about this one?" I asked. I was pretty exasperated with her right now. For the first thirty minutes, she sat and wanted to talk about anything but Herbology. Then when I managed to get her on topic, she didn't know where to start and was checking through all her notes – even ones that weren't related to the class – and what not to find out. And finally, when it was nearly time to go, she had me brewing some potion for sick plants.

Sick plants? Really?

"Um, no, I don't think so at least," she answered. If I wasn't such a gentleman, I would've dropped whatever I was holding and left. Curse said good gentlemen manners.

"Look at the time," I said, "I gotta be going, huh?" She looked upset at what I said, but smiled.

"See you tomorrow?" Not bloody likely. I pretended like I didn't hear her and put on a smile before leaving. I was thinking of going to the dungeons to tell Henri of this lesson when something else came to me. I rushed back to the Herbology greenhouses and knocked a few times on the professor's door. I waited until he opened his door and ushered me inside.

"What brings you – "

"I want a different tutor," I said, getting straight to the point. "Sir," I added.

"Is that so? Well, I'll see what I can do, then," he said. I was going to stand, but decided to add something in.

"Do I really need a tutor, anyway, Professor? I was doing well when I wasn't sitting by Viola, right?"

He thought about it for a moment. "They were somewhat good, but not the best you could do compared to your other grades, right? I just want to make sure you do know what you're doing, is all. Now how about we all get some sleep, huh?" He led me out of his office and closed the door after me.

Mental professor.

I had just stepped into the portrait after issuing the password and was going to the boys' dormitories when a voice behind stopped me dead in my tracks. I turned to face the person and when I saw who it was, I chucked my backpack at him. It hit him square in the face and I smiled before walking toward him.

"What are you still doing up?" I asked.

"Waiting for you to get back so I can hear about your little tutoring session," Henri said. He smirked when I glared at him. I didn't want to tell him about today, but he somehow got it out of me. He smirked even bigger and was about to say something, but I cut him off.

"Now you have to tell me what happened between you and Lily," I said. He didn't say anything for a second, but he smiled and stood.

"Okay, I'll tell you and Rose during the Hogsmeade trip." Then he went off.

That was easy.

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**A/N:** Don't worry, the next chapter (hopefully) will make up for this one! Look out for it tomorrow! :) I really don't like the ending . . .

Will Professor Longbottom get Scorpius a new tutor? If so, who will it be? Can you give a guess? Reviews would be nice! :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	19. What is That?

**A/N**: I was kind of hyper when typing this chapter . . . :) Some parts weren't supposed to be in here, but I put them in anyway! :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter' or the Harry Potter Wiki.

* * *

I was thinking about taking off my tie and rolling up my sleeves, but I was sure some professor would dock points.

Ah, well.

I tugged the tie off, threw it at Henri, and rolled up my sleeves. Henri picked my tie off of his face and tried to throw it back at me, but missed – my tie landing beside my feet. I blamed his bad throw on the position he was currently in. He was lying on his back on his bed with his head nearly touching the ground.

"Going to Herbology?" he asked with a smirk.

"No," I said sarcastically, "I'm going to go snog some unsuspecting girl in a secret broom cupboard." That statement made him sit up all of a sudden.

"Which broom cupboard?"

"Mate, I was _kidding_," I said, wondering why he hadn't caught that. He nodded slowly.

"Of course you were," he said before dropping back to his original position.

"Why do you ask?"

He smirked again. "No reason. Anyway, do you think you have a new tutor?"

"Hopefully so."

"You must be tense, huh?" I nodded.

"Kind of, I guess."

Oh," he said. I was about to ask him about this strange conversation when something collided with the back of my head. Looking down, I saw Henri had just thrown a pillow at me. I just stood there before grabbing the nearest pillow and throwing it back at him. Nothing happened for a little and I turned to face him.

Bad move.

He was waiting for me to do that, apparently, because when I did, he threw a cushion at me and pointed his wand at it.

"_Diffindo!_" was what I heard before a bunch of feathers burst into the air, falling all over the room. He put his wand to the side. We were both quiet for a moment. Then the laughter came.

"Git," I said once I had stopped.

"Eh," he said. I grabbed my books and walked to the door to leave.

_Thump_.

That was the sound of another pillow hitting me. I shook my head, but I was smiling, and left.

I was taking the short way outside today. I went down a long hallway and was about to exit the doors when I heard a noise. Then there came an explosion. Backing up I saw two people – a boy and a girl – leaving a broom cupboard with black soot all over them. I was going to go over to them because I remembered my Prefect status when I recalled something.

"_No," I said sarcastically, "I'm going to go snog some unsuspecting girl in a secret broom cupboard." That statement made him sit up all of a sudden._

"_Which broom cupboard?"_

"_Mate, I was kidding," I said, wondering why he hadn't caught that. He nodded slowly._

"_Of course you were," he said before dropping back to his original position. _

"_Why do you ask?"_

_He smirked again. "No reason. Anyway, do you think you have a new tutor?"_

I smiled and exited through the door. If anyone had seen me, they would've called me an awful Prefect, but I was busy and the two culprits really shouldn't have been in a _cupboard _. . . That's what the Astronomy Tower's for (the place where I will _never_ patrol).

Maybe, just maybe, he found someone way better than Viola.

That was the sentence that was going through my mind at the moment. See what Professor Longbottom did to me? He got me all wiry and jumped up about something as stupid (well, maybe not _that_ stupid) as this.

I made my way outside and to the designated Herbology greenhouse. I peeked in like last time and could feel a smile forming on my face. Why? There was a person with auburn colored hair in the room. Of course, it could be someone else, but I was hoping it was Rose. I was about to go in, but stepping to the right made me see that there was someone else in the room. They were sitting by Rose and had that unmistakable head of black, messy hair. Albus? Well, I could deal with that.

I walked in and watched the two turn. I was right, it was Rose, but the guy wasn't Albus. He didn't have those green eyes like Albus and was a bit taller.

James.

I barely knew the guy, so I hoped this wouldn't get weird or anything with Rose helping me and him trying to talk to her. I was thinking of something to say when Rose picked up her books and bid us a good bye.

"See you guys tomorrow, have a fun tutoring lesson."

Wait, what?

_James Potter _was my _tutor_?

I smiled at Rose as she went by me to leave. She stopped right next to me, though. I was going to ask if something was wrong when she spoke.

"What is that?" she asked, staring at my head. I was going to say hair, but I thought that sounded stupid.

"What's what?" I asked her. She reached up and picked something off my head and brought it down for me to see. A feather. I smiled.

"Why do you have a feather on your head?"

"Ask Henri," I said and she smiled. I nearly forgot that James was in the room, but he reminded me when Rose left by throwing a wooden spoon at me. I bent to pick it up and walked over to him.

"Now, now, Mr. Malfoy," he said taking the spoon from me. "I saw that look." I was confused at first by what he meant. He saw my confused face and nodded his head toward the door. Then I remembered.

"What look?" I asked, trying to seem oblivious as I opened by Herbology book.

"I know you're not stupid, Scorpius," James said. "That's why I was laughing when Neville came to me asking to tutor one of his Fifth – Years. Of course, I thought it'd be Albus, but –"

"You call Professor Longbottom Neville?" I asked him, "And I'm pretty sure you've failed some class in your years here."

James shook his head and handed me some thick gloves. "I may be a prankster, but unlike some, I do have brains. So that makes me smart, handsome, and cool. I'm a shoo in for Head Boy next year, don't you think?" I only shrugged and held up the gloves.

"What're these for?"

"Slapping people across the face," he said seriously. I glanced at the gloves then at him. "Don't get any ideas. Oh, and my previous funny makes me smart, handsome, cool, and funny. And those gloves are for your hands, are they not?" Did he think highly of himself a lot? "I was joking; you're supposed to laugh," he said. I wondered if he knew what I was thinking.

I put the gloves on my hands and watched as he put on his own pair. "What are we working with today then?" James opened his book to a section and turned it to me. It was a chapter on the Venomous Tentacula. He pointed to his gloves and handed me the spoon again.

"That's why we have the spoon. It may not work, but I thought it'd be funny to use."

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**A/N: **I got you there, huh? :) The next three chapters won't be with Scorpius, but he may make an appearance in one or two. :) Reviews would be awesome! :)

_Diffindo_: A spell that rips, divides, and separates objects into parts.

**Venomous Tentacula**: A green, spiky, toothsome plant with mobile vines that try to grab living prey.

P.S.: I got both of those definitions from the _**Harry Potter Wiki**_; do any of you visit it, too? :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	20. Can't tell You

**A/N:** This chapter's pretty long. :) I just wanted to put this here since it was time to go back to Rose before the Hogsmeade trip. Hope you enjoy! :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter.' Or the (lame) jokes that appear in this chapter. :)

* * *

She moved it to her left. He moved it to his left. She moved it back to her left. He moved it back to his left. She moved it to her left again. He grabbed it and threw it at her face. She huffed and threw it at him. He easily caught it.

"Why are you bothering me?" Rose finally asked.

"`Cuz I'm bored," Albus said, putting the cushion back on the settee. They were currently in the Gryffindor Common room, Rose sitting on the settee, Albus sitting on the ground facing her. It was a Saturday morning and they had nothing to do which was pretty sad, them being teenagers and it being a Saturday.

"Are you sure you don't want to go down for some breakfast?" Albus asked. Rose nodded.

"I'm too bored to be hungry," she replied.

"'I'm too bored to be hungry'? Does that even make any sense?"

"I don't know; you tell me, for you are the smart one, right?"

"Are you calling me dumb?"

"I just said you were the smart one."

"I know, but there could be a hidden message in your statement."

"You whine too much," Rose said.

"How was that whining?"

"Would you like some cheese with that 'whine'?" she asked with a smile. Albus stared at her for a second.

"Leave the jokes to me, please," he said.

"Whatever, you knew that was funny, you just don't want to admit it."

"If that's what you think, then okay."

"Exactly."

"But you should stop thinking because you're wrong." Rose gasped.

"Did you –? I just think you did; you said the 'w' word to me!" Albus smirked.

"Yes I did, shall I say some synonyms?"

"You wouldn't –"

"You're incorrect –"

"Albus!"

"– Mistaken –"

"Hey!"

"– Erroneous –"

"You know big terms? I mean: am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Yuh – huh!"

"Nuh – uh!"

"Yuh – huh!"

There was a silence as the cousins tried to think of something else to say. They suddenly began to laugh at their silly conversation.

"Al, I'm bored," Rose said when their laughter died down.

"I know: you're a pretty boring person." Rose brought her leg up and kicked his knee. "Oh, you meant – yeah, I'm bored too." Albus watched wordlessly as Rose twirled her hair with her fingers. He smiled.

"Say, how about I cut your hair for you? It is becoming a bit too long, don't you think?" He conjured up a pair of scissors using his wand. Rose was about to ask how he knew what scissors were when he remembered his dad's heritage. Then another question came to mind.

"How'd you conjure up scissors?"

"Can't tell you that, you'd report me and get my status taken away." He got rid of the cutting device with a lazy flick of his wand. "What do you suppose we do then?"

Rose's eye lit up as though she just remembered something. "It's Saturday, it's still morning, we have no classes – let's go to the library!" She smiled at Albus. He stared at her again.

"Leave the ideas to me, just like the jokes."

"Since you keep making fun of my humor skills, I'll get a joke that'll make you laugh and see that I _am_ funny!" Rose said as they stood to go down to breakfast.

"Don't count on it," said an amused and curious Albus.

Sunday

Rose had the perfect joke that she couldn't wait to tell Albus. He usually slept in on Sundays and then went down to breakfast around 8:30. Rose herself usually woke up around six – that meant she was going to have to wait _forever_ before Albus could hear her brilliant joke.

She woke Emily up when she had gotten ready for the day. Once Emily had gotten dressed, they went to get some chow. By that time it was 7:30. The two Ravenclaws sat at their customary table and began to fill up their plates. Rose had to reach past a bowl of apples to grab the jar of toppings for her toast. That gave her an idea so she took one and put it in her bag. She then looked around the massive table for another fruit. She couldn't find any, thus making her turn back to her breakfast and friend.

Rose excused herself from the Ravenclaw table when she saw Albus enter the Great Hall. She caught up to him and they walked down to the Gryffindor table.

"I have a funny joke for you," she said as they both sat down somewhere in the middle of the table.

"Oh, really? Go on, tell me then," he said.

"I can't; I just need one more thing and once I get it, you'll hear it." Rose smiled happily and went back to the Ravenclaw table. She ate her food as slowly as possible, waiting for people to disperse. She still needed the last prop for her joke. Craning her neck, she could see someone at the Gryffindor table just so happened to be holding one. And she knew the person, too. How convenient.

Since Emily had left to go to the library and wait to her to finish up, Rose didn't have to excuse herself and made her way over to her cousin. Lily was about to peel it, but Rose was quicker and snatched it out of her hands. Lily glanced up at her looking confused.

"Did you want it, Rose? I saved it, especially for you," she said sarcastically.

"Sorry, I'll give it back; I just need to use it for a moment." Rose explained. She smiled and went to grab her bag before going to the Gryffindor common room where Albus said he was going after he finished his breakfast.

"Okay, Rose, give me your best shot," Albus said as Rose stepped into the common room.

"Okay," she said. She placed the fruit she had just taken from Lily and the apple she had gotten from a bowl on top of the table in front of Al. "What did the apple say to the orange?" she asked, pointing them. Albus was silent for a moment, as if considering the answer. He finally shrugged.

"I don't know; what did it say?"

"Nothing stupid, apples can't talk!" She smiled, waiting for Al to laugh. He didn't.

"Is that really all you have? You'll have to do better than that to get me to laugh," he said. She threw the apple at him and picked up the orange to return to Lily. Better, did he say?

Monday

It was right there. She was surprised she even owned one of these, but it was great because it was the prop for her new joke. Rose shoved the item into her backpack and went to the bathroom to put on her school robes. On the way to her first class of the day, she bumped into Hugo. She smiled at him and he fell into step with her.

"I hear you're trying to become funny," he said to her.

"I'm not trying to _become_, I _am_ funny," she corrected.

"Sure you are. How many jokes have you told so far?"

"One."

"And how many has Al laughed at?"

"None."

"Well there you have it! You _are _trying to become funny!"

"No I'm not. Just wait, Al will laugh and he will like it," Rose said.

"Tell me which one he laughs at if any at all, okay?" She nodded and he turned the next corner as Rose kept going forward. She sat patiently and quietly in her classes of the day, took notes, and answered questions for a few extra points to Ravenclaw. Before dinner, Rose went outside to the grounds and sat by the Black Lake like she did every now and then. There she completed any work she had and waited for her companion to join her. Pretty soon, he did.

"Hey, Rose, think you can help me with the Transfiguration homework? I accidentally fell asleep during the middle of the notes. Well, maybe that wasn't so accidental," he added when Rose raised an eyebrow. She handed him her notes nonetheless, though. As he set out to copy her notes, she went back to her own work. When her own work was finished, she turned to Albus and saw he was beginning on the Transfiguration work. This was the perfect moment.

Slowly, Rose pulled out the object she had found that morning. Then she threw it on top of the parchment Albus was writing on. He stopped, looked at the stuffed animal, and peered up at her.

"What am I supposed to do with your dog?" Rose smiled.

"What do you do with a dog that has no legs?" she carefully recited. Al picked up the dog and held it up.

"But this dog has legs."

"But they can't move on their own. Therefore, no legs; do you know the answer or not?"

"No I do not."

"You take him out for a drag!" she said and she demonstrated by pulling the animal forward by its collar.

"Rose, Rose, Rose," Albus said, "that seems kind of harsh, you know. _Dragging_ a dog against the _asphalt_ just because they don't have legs. You should try and be more considerate to those animals." He went back to writing after gently placing the dog on the ground as if to prove his point. "Oh, and you should try and be funnier next time too." Rose threw the dog at his head where it landed upside in his black locks. "Look at you, you harmful person you!" he laughed.

Rose only sighed and fell back against the grass to think of her next funny. Albus laughed again.

* * *

**A/N:** The next chapter won't be as long (I think) and will focus on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. What about Friday you may ask? Well, that'll be a chapter on its own as I have something else to include in it.

Reviews would be nice! :)

I got two of those jokes off a website and heard one at school.

And about that whole thing with conjuring up scissors: I don't know if it is possible, but I thought it'd be funny and put it in there. :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	21. Her next Attempts

**A/N: **Sorry for the long wait! Chapter 21! Another kind of long one. :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter' or the jokes in this chapter. :)

* * *

Tuesday

The library was always so idyllic to the eldest daughter of Ron and Hermione Weasley. She would calm down and feel better by just entering through its doors. Today she was scheduled to meet up with her favorite cousin here, in one of the most peaceful places in the castle. Rose decided to try another joke. That was why she was in the library: she was looking for the right book. The right one was going to be her prop.

She went to the bookshelf behind the one she was just occupying and brushed into someone. She looked up and smiled.

"What're you doing in the Herbology section of the library? Don't you have a tutor that's helping you?" Scorpius grinned and shoved her lightly before picking up a book.

"He can't help me all the time and I doubt he'd help me with my homework," Scorpius said. "What're you doing in the Herbology section of the library?"

"Looking for a book," she answered vaguely.

"Oh, really? There are _books_ here?" Scorpius was really good with being facetious. "But really, what are you looking for? Maybe I can be of service." Rose looked at him before finally nodding. She would let him help her, but she wouldn't tell him why she was looking a specific book; she and Albus could tell him and Henri later. They began to search for a book that would most likely help Rose – Scorpius tackling the top shelves and Rose looking towards the bottom ones.

"How about this one?" Scorpius asked unexpectedly. He held the book up and Rose took it. Flipping through the pages, she saw it was perfect. She smiled at him, gave him a hug, and thanked him before running off to get the book checked out.

_Maybe the library's not so bad after all . . . _Scorpius thought as he continued to look for a book that would help him with his homework.

Later that day, Albus Potter headed to the library. He waved to the librarian and found a table way in the back. He took out his spellbooks, parchment, quill, and ink and began to work on his book report while waiting for Rose to show up. It took forever, but granted, he had come in earlier than they had planned. She sat down at the table he was had taken up, watching as he completed his report. It was only when he was rolling up the parchment that he noticed her presence.

"Hey, Rose. You have another joke for me today?" he smiled at her.

"Yes, I do actually." She placed the book Scorpius had helped her find on the table. She flipped through the pages to the spot that had what she wanted Albus to see and turned it toward him. There were plenty of pictures on the two pages she had opened up to, so Albus wasn't sure what he was supposed to be looking at or for.

"Okay, where's the joke?"

"What's brown and sounds like a bell?" Albus scanned the book again, looking for the possible answer.

"I don't think I know," he said.

"Dung!" she said, pointing to a few pictures of the word.

Albus shook his head. "Not really funny, Rose. Plus, your jokes are more like riddles."

"So? They're a joke and a riddle in one. A joddle." She looked up at him hopefully, only to see him shake his head again.

"Oh, and I have a question."

"Hm?"

"You brought an actual apple and orange when you had a 'joddle' about one. Then you brought me a stuffed animal dog, since you couldn't get an actual dog, obviously, when you had a 'joddle' about the dog. How come for this one you didn't –?"

"Are you seriously asking me that question?" Rose asked. Albus shrugged and grinned.

"You can be spontaneous sometimes, right?" Rose laughed and picked up the book to check back in.

Wednesday

Rose was slowly pacing around the room. She was in the Ravenclaw girls' dormitory with Emily who was sitting cross legged on her bed, occasionally watching Rose and flipping through a book. She could hear her best friend sometimes mumbling something under her breath.

"Still thinking of some joke for Al?" Emily asked. When Rose didn't answer and kept pacing, she took it as a yes. "Well, maybe I can help you. I'm funny, give or take more than you, possibly." Her best friend glared at her, but sat down on the floor in front of her, signaling for Emily to continue.

"Okay, o great funny one, what do you have in mind?"

"That depends on what you what to hear. I have a wide range on jokes."

"Got anything about, let's see . . . dragons?"

"Nope."

"Okay, snakes?"

"Er – sorry."

"Any type of food?"

"Not really."

"A machine of some sort?"

"No."

"You _just_ said you had a wide range on jokes. What happened?"

". . . I don't know." Rose looked at Emily for a second before she started to laugh. "Hey! Don't laugh at me! I was trying to help." Rose took a deep breath and let it out.

"I wasn't laughing at you . . . I was laughing at . . . I was laughing at . . . hey, maybe I was laughing at you," she managed to say before something small and flat flew toward her and landed in her hair. "What's this?" she asked as she quickly knocked it out.

"A cup that used to have coffee in it."

"And why'd you throw it at me? And where'd you even get it from?"

"St. Mungo's." Rose gave her a questioning look, so Emily went on. "It was in my trunk when I was cleaning it out looking for this book. I was going to throw it away, but this book grabbed my attention then you came in. What better way to throw it away than throw it at your best friend hoping they'll do it for you?" Of course Rose was going to agree, but the small, flat cup gave her idea.

"Thank you, Emily!" She got up, threw it away and left with no further explanation.

* * *

"I have a joke! And this time it's not a joddle!" Rose said loudly. Albus jerked up suddenly. Rose had found him in the Gryffindor common room. It looked as though he tried to do some work because he had a book open with some ink and a quill. He must've gotten bored or tired because he was sleeping on the book, quill, and ink.

"Oh, hey Rose, how's it going?" Albus straightened himself and looked at his cousin. He must've just fallen asleep because it would've taken Rose forever to wake him.

"I said I have a joke that's not a joddle," Rose repeated.

"Is it funny?"

Rose ignored him and went on. "A wizard wakes up in a St. Mungo's hospital bed. He suddenly calls out, "Healer, healer! I can't feel my legs!" Can you guess what the healer said?"

"'Stop being an idiot and look down'?" Rose laughed.

"No: 'Of course not – I've cut your arms off!'" She waited for the laughter.

"You can never be gentle with your jokes or 'joddles', huh? Why couldn't that joke have a happy ending?"

"`Cuz it's a joke and never really happened?" Rose asked.

"What if it did?"

"Al! Stop taking every thing out of context and laugh at my joke!" He shook his head.

"My attempt?" Another head shake.

"My wisdom?" This time he did laugh.

"You're so mean!"

"Not really, but that was really funny. Too bad it wasn't a joke." Albus grinned while Rose looked thoughtful as if she was trying to think of something else.

Thursday

"Hey, you guys. Feels like I haven't seen you two in a long time. What's been going on?" Rose smiled as she took a seat next to her favorite two Slytherins. "What're you two doing in here? I thought you didn't like to come in here."

"When we're desperate and in dire need, we're forced to," Henri managed to grunt out. He was busy doing work while Scorpius was leaning back in his chair looking bored. Rose was sitting next to Scorpius since the side of the library table Henri was occupying was messy with parchment and such. He grinned at her and she smiled back.

"Why are you doing work and you're not?" she asked.

"That's because I finished most of my homework. That kid over there couldn't."

"Why?"

"He had detention."

"Henri, what'd you do?"

Henri didn't look up, but Rose could still see the grin that was on his face. "I dunno know; it might have something to do with an explosion, people, and cupboards." He shrugged. "I'm not clear on what really happened."

Scorpius laughed and set his chair back on all four feet. "He set off this type of bomb thing so it'd explode when someone entered it. Soot would come out and wouldn't come off the perpetrators until at least fifty people saw them. Of course Henri managed to capture a snogging couple."

"You're worse than Albus, Henri," Rose said. Henri only shrugged again and continued with his homework. It had gotten pretty quiet and Rose was thinking this was the longest she had heard these two not talking. Scorpius nudged her. Turning to him, she saw he had a stack of pentagon shaped cards in his hands.

"Wanna trade?" he asked with a smile.

"You still collect those?"

"Who doesn't?"

"I don't have mine with me," Rose said truthfully before breaking down. "But I want to see which cards you have." He split his stack in half, gave her one half, and they compared each card that came up. In the end, Scorpius had given Rose seven cards. She was so happy, she was practically beaming; she had even thanked him any time she could squeeze it in.

Henri had finished awhile ago and had watched them trade the cards. Then, feeling hungry as dinner wasn't for some more time, he tried to open a bag of peanuts. Rose gasped and grabbed the bag. Scorpius and Henri looked at her confused.

"You can't eat _food_ in a _library_," she said.

"Or can you?" Henri asked as he successfully managed to get his peanuts back.

"What flavor are those?" Scorpius asked.

"There isn't a flavor, but they are salted." Rose rolled her eyes and looked on as they took a handful and began to chew. She didn't want to break the rules of the library . . . but watching them eat was making her kind of hungry.

"Can I have some?" she finally asked. The two boys smiled and Henri poured some into her open palm.

"That's right, Rose, join the rebellious side and break the rules." As she ate the yummy salted peanuts, another joke started to form in her head. She suddenly stuck out her hand out for some more peanuts. Henri tipped some more out and looked as she waved at them with her free hand and left.

* * *

"Two peanuts were walking down a spooky street at night," she said, skipping the formalities and going straight to the joke when she located Albus. He looked at her.

"Okay . . ." he finally said.

"Guess what happened," she said.

"They were eaten?"

"Nope, but that was somewhat close. One was a-salt-ted. Get it?"

"Are those peanuts?" he asked, looking at her hand. "Can I have some?" She gave him the rest of her peanuts.

"Do you get the joke or not?"

"Yeah, one was a salted peanut, but that's not really funny. Wanna head to the Great Hall for some dinner?" She sighed. Of course he wouldn't pay attention, his mind was on food. She nodded anyway and the two began the trek there while Rose tried to explain the joke again.

* * *

**A/N:** The next chapter will have some Hugo, Henri, and Scorpius. The chapter after that will be in either Scorpius or Rose's point of view - I'm not sure yet - and will be the Hogsmeade trip.

The pentagon shaped cards are, of course, the Famous Wizards and Witches collectible cards if you didn't know.

And if you don't get the last joke: a-salt-ted = assaulted. Get it now? :)

Reviews would be nice! :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	22. One Last Try

**A/N:** I really don't like the in depth homework assignments. :( But anyway, Chapter 22! :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter' or the joke mentioned in this chapter.

* * *

Friday

Rose was sitting in the library trying to complete the last bit of her homework. She didn't want to have anything to do this weekend seeing as tomorrow was the first Hogsmeade trip. She had chosen a table that was near the back, unlike the table she usually grabbed in the middle, so she wouldn't be disturbed.

A few minutes, though, Albus came up to the table and sat down across from her.

"How'd you know I was here?" she asked.

"I just know people," he said, "And plus, James still has the map. I wonder if he'll give it back to dad, or maybe to his favorite brother . . ."

"And who would his favorite brother be? He only has one brother and that's you. Oh, now I get it," Rose said, trying to see if he would laugh. He only glared at her.

"Har har. Was that the joke?"

"No."

"Then proceed on."

Rose hadn't had time to think of one last joke for the day. Using her Ravenclaw mind, she began to think before finally, she came up with a joke. This time, she wouldn't care if he said it was lame, it actually was. "What's brown and sticky?" she asked.

"There are a lot of brown and sticky things," Albus complained.

"Well pick one then."

"A doughnut?"

"Actually, doughnut is more on the lighter brown side. Maybe even tan-nish. But anyway, that's not it. A stick is brown and sticky." She waited for him to tell her how dumb the joke – in this case though, it was more of a joddle – was, but instead, and to her astonishment, he started to chuckle.

"Now that was funny." She wondered if he was just laughing to spare her feelings, but when it looked like he wasn't, she couldn't believe it.

"You laugh at a joke that I don't even put any effort into, but don't at the jokes that I try really hard to make funny?"

"That's the problem: you try too hard. Maybe other people will find you're joddles funny, but I'm the kind of guy who likes the simple and funny jokes," he said.

"Well, next time I won't try too hard to find an amusing joke for you?" She had some difficulty saying that because she was the type of girl who tried her best on _everything_ she did.

"That's all I ask, though maybe some of your planned out jokes will be funny too. Who knows? A stick," he said as he got up to leave, a backward wave to Rose. She sighed and smiled before going back to her assignment. She was only in the middle of it when she heard some footsteps coming in her direction. Maybe it was just a coincidence and it was someone who didn't want to distract the Ravenclaw from her work. She tried to go back to her paper and listened as the footsteps and people talking came closer and closer.

"Told you she was here!" Rose looked up to see Henri, Hugo, and Scorpius all standing in front of the desk she had momentarily been doing her work upon. She looked back down and began to write.

"Hey, Rose," Hugo said, walking over to see what she was doing.

"Hey you guys, I'm kind of busy. Something you needed?"

"Yeah, we just wanted to make sure you were still coming to Hogsmeade tomorrow," Henri said.

Rose knew she would be able to, but she wanted to see what would happen if she declined the offer. "I really thought I could, but I just have too much work. We'll just have to see how much I have left before the library closes."

"We're pretty sure you'll get finished soon. Are you still going to come?" Scorpius asked.

"I wish I could. Tomorrow I was going to come early so I could study some. Doesn't that sound like a great idea? Any of you want to come along?" She watched as the three boys glanced at each other. Scorpius and Henri weren't really sure what to do in a situation like this, so Hugo took matters into his own hands.

"Are you sure, Rose? We were really hoping you could make it. Why? Your friends for the sake of you being there and me because you're supposed to buy me stuff."

"I'll try, I guess," she answered.

"Okay," Hugo said as he shifted to his right. Rose was about to ask him whether he wanted to read her paper when he began to tickle her side. She dropped her quill because of her continuous laughing and tried to get him to stop unsuccessfully.

"Hugo!" Rose shouted, fleetingly forgetting they were still in a library. "Please! Stop!" she got out between her laughs. This little show motivated Scorpius and Henri to join in. Henri went over next to Hugo to tickle her side and abdomen while Scorpius went behind her and got her other side and backside.

"Do you give up yet?" Hugo asked mischievously. Her eyes were closed by now and she was still laughing. She finally tried to scoot away from them, only to fall out of her seat and hit the ground. Hugo began to laugh. Rose reached under the table to get her quill that somehow fell off the table. As her fingers grasped it, someone came into the little section.

"Boys, you need to be quiet in the library or I will be forced to tell you to leave, okay? I don't want to, but there are some students trying to concentrate. Maybe you three should try to study or something." Rose could see the shoes of the librarian intern. Apparently, the lady hadn't seen Rose on the ground under the table.

"Yes, ma'am," she could hear the three boys say in unison before the intern left. She only stood when she was sure that the woman had left. The three boys looked at her and she began to laugh, only quieter.

"That was funny. And yes, I'm still coming to Hogsmeade with you guys. Though, Hugo, I'll see about buying you stuff, as you put it. Now can I please finish up here?" She watched confused as Hugo began placing all of her things in her bag. He looked up at her whilst putting the bag on his shoulder.

"Okay, but you'll have to come get your bag back for almost getting us in trouble." He grinned and ran off. She was sure he was going to walk when he got to the front as to not get another warning. She looked at Henri and Scorpius who smiled at her. Then she began to walk in the path Hugo had went with the two remaining boys behind her.

Outside, Hugo was leaning against the wall like he had been waiting for them. "Took you long enough," he said before he ran down the long hallway. Scorpius was sure Rose would take points from Gryffindor since there was one running down the hall, but she actually ran behind him, laughing all the way.

"Shall we go after them?" Henri asked. Scorpius nodded and they ran after the siblings, thinking of some spells they could throw along the way to make it even harder for Rose.

* * *

**A/N:** Hope you liked! :) I just noticed the line 'laughing all the way' and started singing "Jingle Bells" like the little kid I am on the inside. :)

Reviews would be nice! :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	23. I Knew It

**A/N: **Man, it's been forever! Sorry about that; homework and tests and tests and homework. . . But I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I liked typing it! :)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter'.

* * *

"So, where exactly is she?" Henri asked before putting a Bernie Bott's Every Flavour Bean in his mouth and spitting it out upon contact with his tongue. "Grass," he explained.

"I don't know," I said reaching in and pulling out a yellowish golden colored bean and placing it in my mouth. "Honey," I smirked at him. We were having a contest to see who could draw out all the better tasting beans. Guess who was winning? That's right: me.

"What time did she say she was coming?" he asked.

"Did she really even clarify any details?"

Henri looked thoughtful for a second. "No, no she didn't. Should we wait for her?"

"Yeah, let's wait a little longer and see if she comes by." We were sitting on a bench in Hogsmeade waiting for our dear friend Rose. We had stopped by Honeydukes to pick up some something to eat when she hadn't shown up in the first hour.

Another hour passed by and we were still sitting on the bench. Henri had been trying to persuade me to explore around, but I resisted. The beans were sitting in between us, long forgotten.

"Scorpius – "

"She's coming; it's obvious she is," I said again hoping Henri wouldn't catch on to anything.

"Okay, I'll sit here a bit more, but I really want to go to some joke shop or _something_ besides sitting here." I nodded and we began our little game again. It wasn't long before we heard a female voice calling out to us. We didn't really pay attention to the person because it was noticeably not Rose's voice.

"Hello, guys." We still didn't look up. The visitor huffed before grabbing our box of beans and pouring them out on the ground.

"Hey! You owe us – oh, it's you," Henri had started to stand until he noticed the person. I glanced up at her, but really wish I hadn't as she was probably waiting for that. She smiled at me and sat down in the middle of us. I could hear Henri snort – he was probably remembering what had happened a few seconds ago.

"Hey, Scorpius, what are you doing? Waiting for someone perhaps?"

"Well, yes –"

"Doesn't look like they showed up, so you're stuck with me."

"But Henri's sitting right –" I could never finish my sentences with her around.

As Viola stood and pulled me to my feet, I could see Henri point at her so I just shrugged my shoulders. I really didn't know where she had come from. He smirked at me and before I could do anything, Viola was practically dragging me down the pathway. I suddenly heard someone laughing out loud and looking back I saw it was Henri. How many times was I going to have to get him back?

When we were far away from the bench she had taken me away from I began to speak. "Uh, Viola, did you need me for something?" It was probably the stupidest question seeing as she could lie to me, but I didn't try to change it – at least not at the present moment.

"Nothing really," she said, linking her arm into mine and smiling her Viola smile. I started to think of something else to say when she sharply pulled me to the left and into a shop.

"What the . . ." I began; she had a fierce grip. Looking around the store, I could see plenty of quills. Different sizes, shapes, colors, and inks: must have been Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop. I looked at Viola and saw she seemed to be happy shopping here. Strange.

I slowly eased my arm out of hers, but was caught as she pulled me to a section in the back of the store where there was a plethora of ink bottles. Viola finally let go of my arm to pick up and turn around some bottles. I quickly stuffed my hands in my pockets and kept my arms tight against my sides. I may have looked weird, but hey, I need my blood circulation.

"So, uh, you moved me from the bench to take me to a quill shop?" I asked for the silence was nearly killing me. She glimpsed at me before turning back to the ink.

"I . . . I don't know. I was lonely I guess." That was a pretty lame excuse.

"I'm sure you have friends, right?"

"Yeah, but I just needed to clear my head before talking to them. Then I saw you sitting all by yourself –"

"Henri was there," I interrupted.

"– And thought you would make me feel better. You sort of did, but I'm still kind of upset." What was going on here?

"Well, do you want to tell me what happened? It's the least you could do, right?" I was pretty sure she was going to throw subtle hints at me and beat around the bush as most girls –

"My boyfriend dumped me," she said and bluntly at that. Woah. I was wrong.

"You – you had a boyfriend?" What about those days where she flirted with me?

"No, not really, but I thought he was going to ask me. Yet he didn't and instead went to some o-other g-girl," he voice shook. "So I thought you o-of all p-people w-would c-cheer me up," she said again before tears started to stream down her face. I was dumbstruck at first, but then I smirked.

"Are you trying to make me feel sorry for you with fake tears?" Her tears stopped abruptly and she looked up at me with a look that clearly asked how I had figured it out. "Your voice started to shake before the tears. Usually that happens, but not that I know of so I just guessed to see. And my bluff was correct. Plus, Henri's little sister, Felicité, is really good at it." She sighed and took out a handkerchief to wipe her face.

"You're good and know how to figure a girl out," she said with a tiny smile. I pulled my lower lip up into a half smile. "But, yeah, I thought he had liked me, but next thing I know, he's staring at this other girl in class. I thought it was purely coincidental until he started to talk to her today. I really don't know what to do and I can't tell my friends just yet – it's a girl thing," she added when I made to ask her why.

I started to scratch the back of my head like all boys do when they're in an awkward girl situation. "Wouldn't it be best to talk to your friends about this? They might know a lot more than I do on this subject." She didn't say anything for a minute before she nodded.

"I'll tell them, but just not now. You can go now if you want; I just need to find some ink before I go on to find someone to talk to." She smiled a weaker smile at me than the last one and selected a short, but plump black ink bottle. You think I would be happy to go especially since she dragged me here against my will. There was just something she said and the way she said it that I felt a little empathy. I bet she did that on purpose.

"I'll stay here with you until you're done and found your friends." She smiled brightly, picked out a random ink bottle, and led me to the front to purchase it.

"Thank you, Scorpius! Where should we go next? How about Gladrags Wizardwear? I do need some more scarves . . ."

I knew it.

* * *

**A/N: **The name Felicité I got from _That Romantic_ as I did most of the names in this story, so I thank you! I hope it won't take me too long to update next time, but with the school year almost ending and the endless amount of tests and homework . . . Anyway . . . :)

I got Gladrags Wizardwear, Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, and those two Bernie Bott's Every Flavour Bean flavors (flavours) from the Harry Potter Wikia.

Reviews would be nice even if they're to criticize or explain what I should improve! :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	24. Oh the Irony

**A/N: **Ahhhh!! It's been forever! Sorry! I'm not a big fan of this chapter because it sounded so much better in my head. :) Hope you enjoy anyway! Oh, and Happy (belated) Easter!! :)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter.'

* * *

Scorpius stood rooted to the spot Viola had pointed out for him. She had just told him she was going to go buy something and left, but not before making sure he would wait for her in the spot. He had stuck his hands in his pockets willing himself not to walk off, though the feeling was strong. He knew he wouldn't walk off; he just couldn't.

After standing about seven minutes, someone tapped him on his shoulder and he spun around to see who it was, despite the fact that he wasn't expecting a certain someone or anything . . . The person was, of course, Viola and she had a small, box shaped package in her hands that Scorpius hadn't seen her buy.

"Here you go," she said, handing him the small box and giving him a quick hug. "Thanks for today." Then she waved as she walked past him back in the direction of Hogwarts. He turned the box over in his hands before deciding to open it later. At the present moment he was trying to find Henri and figure out if Rose was coming, had come, or wasn't coming at all to Hogsmeade.

The first placed he checked for Henri was a pretty stupid place: the bench they had been sitting on and waiting. He hadn't expected him to wait around for him, but it would've been nice if he had so Scorpius wouldn't have to run all around the town looking for him.

But wait; what if Henri had left and gone back to Hogwarts? What should Scorpius do now: go back to the school and see if he had indeed gone back or check around the little village to see if he had stayed? Well . . . eh, Scorpius had wanted to look around and get a butterbeer.

Still holding the box, the Slytherin made his way around the place stopping as he pleased to buy some sweets or something of the sort. Finally, he came upon The Three Broomsticks and as he opened the door he welcomed the nice, warm smell into his nostrils.

Scorpius went to the front to order a butterbeer and looked around the pub as he waited. Just when he received his drink, he noticed a familiar flash of auburn hair in the back opposite from where he was. He also noticed Henri and smiled as he grabbed his mug and purchases to make his way over to them. When he had hopped down from his seat and looked at them again, he watched as Henri moved his face in closer to Rose's face and, very faintly, he could see her blush, but not move away. Then Henri moved away as quickly as he had come.

This exchange baffled Scorpius to no end and while he was thinking it over, his feet had begun to move in their direction. He stood before them and he watched as Henri smiled and Rose just sipped some more of her drink.

"Hey, can I sit here?" He took the seat next to Rose when they didn't say no. As he sipped his own drink, he was staring at Rose and his fellow Slytherin suspiciously. Finally, he coughed to get their attention.

"So, what did you want to tell us, Henri?" Rose squeaked when he said that and ended up spilling some liquid contents on her. Scorpius would've laughed if he wasn't as curious as to why that had happened; Rose wasn't _this_ clumsy, was she?

"I'm just going to go clean this off, then. Excuse me, Scorpius," she said, so Scorpius scooted out of the booth to let her out. Their eyes met, but she was quick to tear hers away and practically run to the restroom.

"Dunno why she went to clean that off; you could barely see that," Henri said, eyeing the package on the table next to his mate. "What's that? Get a present from your future girlfriend?" he joked. Scorpius shrugged.

"I didn't open it yet," he said and he began ripping the paper to reveal his present from Viola: a box of Bernie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. A note had fallen out, so while Henri opened the box to enjoy himself, Scorpius read it.

_Scorpius,_

_Thanks for the little talk. Hope you and your friend forgive me for earlier. So, anyway, tell Homer I'm sorry and if you will, share these with him . . . Or was his name Hoagie? Herbert? Well, enjoy and look forward to having me in your life when I have a bad relationship. And maybe some of my friends under the same circumstances when I tell them what you did for me. Hope you don't mind!_

_Much love,_

_Viola_

"How thoughtful of her to buy you some of these, huh? Oh, a note? Can I read it?" Scorpius folded it up and shoved it into his pocket.

"Nothing important, really," he said when Henri looked confused. "Have you really ever talked to Viola before?" he asked instead trying to figure out why she hadn't known his name.

"Why should I? She's pretty annoying."

Of, course.

Scorpius was trying to figure out how to go about asking regarding what he had just seen moments before. When he had found a way to start it off subtly, a few of their friends showed up and began talking to them.

Oh, the irony, huh?

While they were talking, Scorpius became aware of Rose exiting the restroom. He glanced back at his friends before getting up and walking over to her. She smiled lightly at him.

"Wanna walk around a bit; get some fresh air or something?" He could tell she wanted to ask why, but she just nodded and they went outside. "So, you were in there maybe a millennium or two. Why's that?" She shrugged.

"I-It was a big stain to try and get rid of."

"Oh, yeah, it looked really massive compared to the button on your sleeve." The button on her sleeve, a blue color, was only somewhat bigger than their thumbnails, but was bigger than her "big" stain.

"Whatever," she said with a smile. "Did Henri tell you what happened?"

"No, but I did see what happened before I joined you guys at the booth." She seemed confused before she gave herself away with a little blush. Now, Scorpius was going to take his chances and voice his opinion of what he had seen. He could be wrong and it all could be a big misunderstanding, but his common sense just wouldn't kick in.

"And I think you're going a bit too far." Rose stopped dead in her tracks and looked as he turned to face her.

"What? I only drank two mugs of butterbeer. I hardly think that's going too far."

"Huh? No after that, I guess, with Henri." This time her blush was more visible.

"What do you mean I'm going a bit too far then?" The first thing she was thinking was that he was jealous . . .

"I mean you're going to end up hurt . . . ing Lily . . ." The words sank in around them. Scorpius could feel his eyes widen because of the way he had phrased it. He didn't even know what he was saying any more. That's when he could see Rose's eyes doing the opposite of his, narrowing.

"Shouldn't you be happy then? If Lily's upset then you can go cheer her up, huh?" He was jealous, she had figured. He was jealous of Henri.

Scorpius, on the other hand, was thinking if Rose was getting all worked up it could've been because she fancied him. But . . . he had pretty much blown it with her at the time being. Rose turned and left without another word.

"Rose, I hadn't meant it like that! Where are you going?"

"Back to the castle. Can you tell Henri or would it just end up hurting him?" She called without a backward glance.

Yup, he had blown it.

But he still had a little sliver of a chance, right?

* * *

**A/N: **I hope that wasn't _too_ bad . . . :) I also hope the next chapter won't come as late as this one did!

I rewrote this chapter a bunch of times when I had the chance because I really didn't like it, but the next chapter won't be too bad.

Reviews would be awesome (and yes, I know how much this chapter sucked)! :)

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	25. Almost Never Fails

**A/N: **Where has the time gone? :) Anyway, introducing some characters I have under used in the past! Some others will be featured in the next chapter also. :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter.' (Why don't I ever get tired of typing this?)

* * *

Angrily, she kicked the snow on the ground, which nearly led to her tripping. She stumbled a bit, but managed to keep her balance, hoping that Scorpius had not seen from where he was standing. She refused to look back, though, she was still mad at him. Why was she mad? She didn't even know; she had blown it way out of proportion, but she wasn't going to tell him that. But maybe she hadn't blown it out of proportion . . .

On she went and when she tried to kick at the ground again, some snow happened to fly up and landed a short distance . . . right on top of someone's shoes. Rose, seeing where the snow had settled, began to apologize profusely.

"I'm _so_ sorry; I really hadn't meant to do that – "

"Hey, Rose, it's okay. _Really_, snow does this amazing thing: it melts, leaving no trace or I could shake it off –"

"You," Rose cut in. Her cousin looked at her and tried a smile to see if she would let up, but to no avail.

"'You' what; what'd I do?"

"Your boyfriend just told me what happened and you're going to tell me what you think and your side of the story. Is that okay with you?"

"But, Rose, I didn't really get to look around the place; it's my first time here, have a soul!"

"You say that as if I've just had a Dementor's Kiss."

"You sure are acting like it."

"Not really, there are some symptoms you would find I would have if I had indeed just gone through and got a Dementor's Kiss. Shall I list them for you?"

"Now you're just being cruel, Rose."

Rose stepped forward and began pulling her by her wrist, but instead of marching in the direction of the school she took pity and led her to Honeydukes. Lily was protesting the entire time, but Rose was going to relent until she heard everything.

* * *

Meanwhile, a certain black haired kid was making his way from sweet shop to joke shop holding his purchases happily like a little kid. He had decided to take a brief stop and warm up in The Three Broomsticks with a hot butterbeer when he saw one of his friends standing outside with some of the freshly falling snow landing on his head. Scorpius looked so confused that Albus just couldn't walk by and pretend he hadn't seen him as he was planning to do, cruel though it may seem. Listening to the snow crunch lightly under his shoes, the Gryffindor made his way over careful not to drop any of his items; he did pay for _all_ of them and he did want his money's worth.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked when he arrived next to him.

"Rose is mad at me," he said, looking at everything Albus had bought. "Stocking up for the winter or something?"

"Har, har. Why's Rose mad at you?"

Scorpius didn't want to give the whole story so he quickly summed it up, "She somehow rearranged what I said and turned it to make it seem as if I didn't care about her or something along those lines."

"Oh, well I know what to do in situations like these," Al said as he opened a box of toffee and offering his friend some.

Scorpius picked one and bit into the sweet and looked curious. "Really? What do you think I should do then?"

"It's a secret, but I do think I can share with you." Al looked both ways, saw some people on the other side of the pathway, and before the Slytherin could react, he started to yell at them. "YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT; KEEP WALKING! THERE'S SOME PRIVATE BUSINESS GOING ON OVER HERE!" The group was mainly made up of young girls who, upon being addressed by an upper year and such a cute one, began giggling and sneaking peeks at them.

"As if they'll even hear us, Al," Scorpius hissed when the girls had disappeared from their view. "And this better be a good secret too."

Albus smirked. "Of course it is – almost _never _fails." Scorpius waited for him to go on after he ate another toffee. "But you must do _exactly_ what I say _exactly _how I say it, okay?" Those words worried the blond because it made it seem as if the plan was stupid or something his mate would make up on the spot. Nevertheless, Scorpius nodded his head and Al began to tell him of the "almost never fails" plan.

* * *

"So, what happened?"

"You know what happened; you just said you did."

"Yeah, I do, but I want to know _why_ it happened."

"You'll think it's stupid," the redhead said, looking down at the smooth, brown surface of the table.

"Care to enlighten me? And I'm pretty sure I won't, Lily."

"Well, he had just taken me to the kitchens to grab a snack before my curfew. Because, you know, we third years have a different curfew time than you fifth years."

"Yes, Lily, I know. Please continue without all of this stalling."

"Sheesh, okay, okay. He decided to walk me back to the Gryffindor common room and I had no objections to it, of course. We were talking a lot about a bunch of stupid minor things, though it was nice to be talking about something. Then we finally make it to the portrait of the Fat Lady. Can you believe she's still here? How old do you reckon she is? Do portrait people age –?"

"Lily," Rose said calmly to stop her rambling.

"Oh, right, anyway I told her the password and was about to go in when Henri stopped me. I turned to him looking all cute and stuff and was about to ask him if something was wrong when he leaned over. Then his eyes started to close and I momentarily freaked out. I really wanted to kiss him, but like I said, I freaked out and ran into the common room and the portrait closed. I didn't know what I was going to say to him after that, but he didn't seem mad and never brought it up again, which I suppose, was as to not make anything awkward between us, but it just made me feel so guilty. And I never even said goodbye to him that night."

Rose nodded her head slowly. "The question is why didn't you tell him about your nervousness? And you guys _never_ spoke about this?" Lily nodded. "But, I think you're lying."

"Huh?" Lily asked. "What do you think I'm lying about? I told you every bit of the truth."

"Lily, you're not a shy girl. I've never seen you freak out about anything in your life."

"Things could change," she said defiantly.

"Okay, that's true. So did things change?" She could see Lily struggling to tell the truth in a vague as possible way.

"No, things didn't change."

"Do you want to tell me what was going through your head that day?"

"No," she said, the defiance returning.

"Okay, if that's your choice. Well, I've got to get going. I'm pretty angry right now and want to go think of some revenge." She began to rise out of her seat.

"You're planning to get revenge on me just because I didn't tell you?" Lily looked confused. Just as Rose was about to explain how she was mad at Scorpius, her cousin went on. "Fine, maybe . . . maybe I'll tell you, but it's a huge maybe. And it's only because I don't want to wake up in the morning to see you've changed my hair color or have charmed everything I touch to bite me."

* * *

**A/N: **Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I think there may be three or four more chapters. :) Plus, I've nearly finished with a sequel to one of my other stories (TL/VW), which was one of the many reasons why I haven't updated in awhile, so sorry about that. I didn't really like how I went about writing that story, but some people liked it and wanted me to do a sequel because I did have one in mind. I'm thinking about posting it after I've finished with this story.

Don't know why Rose was freaking about the kicking snow on someone's shoes accidentally, though. :)

Reviews would be awesome!

--~~ Sparkly S ~~--


	26. Are you Sure?

**A/N: **So . . . . :) Happy month of May (that is, if you like May)! I was thinking while I was not doing anything but homework (sometimes, at least) and I've come up with three different things I may or may not do. But, I'll explain that in the next **A/N:** if you're interested. For now, enjoy chapter 26: Are you Sure? :) (I hope I put enough humor to make up for that long wait.)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter.'

* * *

"Will this be today, or tomorrow?" Rose sank back down in her chair.

"Today, I guess," Lily replied.

"Okay, go on, then."

Before Lily began her explaining, pink began to tinge her cheeks. "I'm so stupid," she said, "I was scared because of our age differences. He's fifteen and I'm only twelve. I know, stupidest thing ever, but I felt intimidated. He could have gotten plenty of perfect kisses from some girl his age. That would have been my first kiss and I could've messed everything up and he probably would have pinned it on my young age. And I don't even know why I'm freaking over this. I'm such a kid." Rose tried to say something, but Lily wasn't done. "I mean, age _is_ but a number, right? Why _didn't_ I just kiss him? It may have been because I'm not a teenager yet meaning I don't have any raging hormones like you guys pushing me to want to kiss him. And I still have to figure out what I'm going to say to him if we ever end up talking about this."

"Lily, the most simple and probably the best way to go about this would be telling him how you felt that day," Rose said, finally getting a word in. Lily narrowed her eyes at her cousin.

"I hate that sappy kind of advice," she muttered.

"Well, that's the only kind you'll be getting from me, then."

"Rose! You're supposed to be helping me!" Lily pleaded.

"I believe I just did."

"Then help me some more."

"I only have so much good advice if any advice at all," Rose said.

"Where's some girl who actually beats Rose in a subject when you need her?" Lily joked.

"This subject's not school related, so it doesn't count," Rose said, her face betraying her with a slight blush.

"So, did any inspiration hit you? Maybe some great advice for your cousin?"

"Oh, yes: talk to him about this," she said slowly.

"Fine," she said, "I'll talk to him, but if it fails, this is on _your head_. Now buy me some candy, please."

"Oh, joy," Rose said sarcastically as Lily put on her "in a candy store" face expression and pulled her towards a stand displaying plenty of candy.

* * *

"That's the best you could come up with?" Scorpius asked Albus.

"Hey," Albus, defiantly, "I didn't come up with this and it _does_ work. Just ask James."

"Oh, so he was the one who made it up?"

"Doubt it. Think my dad told him to see if he'd actually do it; and he did, but it worked according to him. Should've seen the look on dad's face when mum nearly heard about it. James and I went at him for weeks."

Scorpius looked at the snow: they were still outside of the Three Broomsticks, talking while eating away some of Albus's "hibernation" food. As he munched on a chocoball while thinking of what Albus had just told. James wasn't really the type to have a bunch of girlfriends, but when he did have one, she was pretty, he supposed. He also didn't seem like the type to make a girl upset, but eh, girls got upset over a number of things, like misunderstanding things without giving someone a chance to clarify. After he had eaten three chocoballs, Scorpius tried to ask Albus a question without trying to sound _too_ interested. He didn't want Albus to think he would go for any old thing to get someone to stop being mad at him.

"So, um, it really works you say?" So much for inconspicuous. Albus glanced at him and a smirk started to grow on his face.

"Why yes, yes I do say. Why, going to try it?" Scorpius tired to look indifferent, but didn't really pull it off well, looking more like he was confused. "By that strange look on your face, I'll take that as a yes. But remember: it's best if you do it when they _least _expect it. James says it's best that way."

"Have you ever tried this "almost never fails" plan before, Al?"

Albus snorted. "Do you really think I would consider doing something as stupid as this sounds?" When Scorpius glared at him, he quickly went on. "But, uh, if I see it when you execute it out on Rose and it works, I may reconsider." Scorpius grinned at his friend's quick reply that saved him and thought about telling him what he had seen in the Three Broomsticks between Henri and Rose. As he thought about it, it evolved it a scene with some hexes, crying girls, hospital trips, and not to mention expulsion. That made him change his mind; it wasn't his any of his business to tell anyway.

"I'll listen to whatever you tell me you're thinking about if you give me a Galleon," Albus said before eating a Chocolate Frog and admiring the card: Salazar Slytherin. It took Scorpius a second to interpret what Albus had just said and another second or two to think of a reply.

"I believe the muggle saying is "penny for your thoughts" meaning _you _give _me_ money to hear what's on my mind, not the other way around."

"Why would I want a penny?" Albus asked as he rummaged around for something else to eat.

"I _just_ said it was a muggle saying."

"Are you going to give me the Galleon or what?"

"Seriously, Albus?"

"No, I believe the correct way to answer would be to say "what" since it's obvious you won't give me the gold coin," Albus said with a smirk, showing that he had been listening. Scorpius looked at Albus for a second before he started laughing. He really wished he had some since of humor like his mate's.

"How exactly did I meet you and begin hanging out with you?" Scorpius asked when he had stopped laughing. "And when did you get a funnier sense of humor than me?"

"When you're a Potter, you just _have_ to have it all," Albus said.

"Now you sound like James when he was tutoring me."

"Really?" Scorpius didn't respond right away, earning him a look from his friend.

"Albus?"

"Huh?"

"Are you _sure _this is going to work?"

"Aha! So you _are _going to try it!" Albus grinned while Scorpius tried to look indifferent again, and once again failing.

* * *

**A/N:** That whole thing about Rose/Henri that happened in the previous chapter will be explained in the same chapter where Scorpius will execute the plan. Wanted to give Scorpius and Albus a longer section just because. Anyway, here are the three things I may or may not do:

1) I might change my username. As I am used to it by now, that's a huge _might, _but you guys don't really care about that.

2) I might possibly take your requests if you want (on specific things). If you want to see a certain something or someone in a chapter, you could PM me or tell me in a review. I'll try to squeeze it in there so you can notice it. :) This could help me update faster or earlier depending on what it is and my schedule. Of course I'll credit what's yours, but try not to request something so big. :)

3) Usually, when I don't have any homework (which is very slim) and I'm not in the mood for working on my stories, I'll be looking for something to do, which might be to read a book or a story here on fanfiction. If you want, I'll review your story for I am always looking for something to read. And even if you don't want me to, I might check out your page randomly one day and read/review a story of yours anyway. :)

You don't have to consider number two or three, but it was something I was thinking over and thought you may have been interested in and things I was thinking about doing. If you are, I'll try my best going about it, so I hope you won't be offended if I can't put in what you wanted.

So . . . reviews would be awesome (to give and to get)! :) Time for me to figure out what to do next. XD

--~~Sparkly S ~~--


	27. At this Moment?

**A/N: **Hello. . . Here's Chapter 27!

I hope you'll read my (okay, _kinda, _but not really) long **A/N: **at the bottom. If not, I hope you'll at least read the **P.S.: **and the **P.P.S.:**.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything dealing with 'Harry Potter'.

* * *

"But Rose! You didn't buy me any Chocolate Frogs! You know I _love_ Chocolate Frogs!" Rose rolled her eyes and sighed. She and Lily had just left Honeydukes to walk around in the snow. She looked at Lily who was holding two bags of her purchases; more like Rose's purchases: Rose had bought it all for her younger cousin because you just couldn't resist her "in a candy store" face.

"Yeah, but I bought you, like, everything else you wanted and I only have so much pocket money I like to waste around Hogsmeade time. What happened to all of your pocket money?" Lily smiled innocently and muttered something about makeup. "I don't see why you would need makeup anyway, you're pretty enough."

"Aw, Rose, you're too kind to me," Lily said, slinging her free arm around Rose's waist for a quick hug. The truth was, though, that Rose said that to all of her friends (okay, just the girls) who wasted money buying makeup and asked to borrow Rose for some her own money for it really was annoying. "Anyway, look at me, I'm a torn woman." Rose did what was told and looked at Lily who didn't look at all torn up, but happy and young.

"Oh, yeah, you look _really _torn to me. Anyway, you're barely a woman."

"Have I ever told you I love your sarcasm?"

"No."

"Well don't expect me to soon."

"Oh, how will I live without knowing my dearest cousin doesn't love my sarcasm? It hurts _so_ very much. Especially since she's holding bags of what _I_ bought for her since she was _so_ torn up. How will I ever live?" Rose's hand fluttered to her heart while she gazed up into the sky looking upset in a playful manner. Lily laughed and moved some hair out of her face.

"I never knew you were this funny, Rose. And Hugo said you didn't have a funny bone in your body."

Rose smiled. "He said that?" At that instance, she remembered something. "Ah, I was supposed to buy Hugo something, but I don't think I have any money left," she said and at the last part she glared at Lily who, once again, looked innocent and shrugged.

"How's it my fault that you forgot to bring extra money? Plus, why would you want to buy him something? He _insulted_ you."

"He was only teasing, Lily. Why couldn't you have gotten your two older brothers to buy you that stuff?" When Lily didn't answer for some time, Rose glanced at her and saw she was looking thoughtful. Her brown eyes met Rose's blue ones when she turned to answer.

"I didn't think of that," she admitted. Rose's mouth opened to say something, but Lily quickly added in, "Anyway, I had met up with you, not those two. Remember?" Rose started to nod, but stopped and narrowed her eyes.

"But James _and_ Al escorted you here! You could have asked them then for some of their pocket money!"

"Oh, you saw me with them?" Lily asked sheepishly.

"Lily! You owe me!" Lily smiled and linked her arm with her cousin's.

"Okay, do you want the toffee or some packets of Pumpkin Pasties?"

Still looking kind of angry, Rose said, "The Pumpkin Pasties." Digging around in the bag, Lily handed her a packet of the treat and Rose happily tore the plastic to take a small bite. Lily also helped herself to one and for awhile they just walked on slowly, enjoying their pastry. When Rose finished, she waited for Lily and threw both of the wrappers in a rubbish bin. Rubbing her hand against each other as if she was thinking of an evil plan or trying to warm up her hands, Rose sighed. "So, what now? Shall we go find Henri so you can fail miserably at telling him your feelings while I look on as you two live in the awkwardness?"

Lily looked at Rose. "You know, I liked your sarcasm better." Rose smiled.

"Oh, thank you. Do you want me to try and say that sentence again, but in a sarcastic way? It may be hard, but I'm up for a challenge." And so Lily walked ahead of Rose who was trying to start off the sentence in a sardonic manner. "Aw, come on, Lily!" She followed after the redhead and they turned in the direction of the pathway, seeing three figures walking ahead of them; one of the figures with a head of unmistakably messy black hair. "Hey, look, Lily, it's your boyfriend with Al and someone else who I believe is Scorpius. Let's go talk to them; well, more like you go talk to one of them."

Lily didn't say anything for a bit before she spoke. "Get rid of the other two and maybe I will."

"When you say 'get rid' –?" Rose began to question. Lily shot her a look, so Rose stopped the clichéd joke. "Fine, fine, go on and I'll grab the other two." This time, Rose walked ahead of Lily and when she was behind Al, she pulled on his shirt to drag him back, knowing he would grab on to the next person, and she was right as, when his arms began to flail wildly, he grabbed on Scorpius's collar.

"Ah, Rosie, dear! What's your explanation for trying to ruin one of my favorite shirts?" Al asked when she had let go of him and, indirectly, Scorpius. Rose looked down at his blue button-up shirt and shook her head.

"Firstly, don't call me 'Rosie'." Albus grinned and shrugged as he already knew she hadn't really taken a fancy to that nickname. "And secondly, I know how much you hate button-up shirts because, and I quote, 'there are just too many buttons and my wrist and fingers start to ache when I've barely made it to the middle.'" She watched as he nodded solemnly while Scorpius chuckled from Albus's other side.

"Too, too true," Al agreed. "So, what did you want?"

"Nothing."

"Then why'd you viciously attack me?"

"I didn't 'viciously attack' you." Rose glared at him, kicking at some snow on the ground.

"Yeah, but a professor is more or less likely going to believe me than you." He quickly continued when he saw her about to interrupt. "It's the eyes; they're just too sexy." Rose rolled her eyes and laughed a bit. "Hey, it's true."

"Whatever you say."

"That's right; whatever _I _say. And I ask again, did you want anything?"

"Nah, Lily just wanted me to get Henri alone so she could talk to him." Albus looked as his cousin nodded her head toward the area where the two mentioned were standing. Lily appeared to be fiddling with her fingers while Henri, noticing Lily's fingers, placed his hands on top of hers to stop the movement, a tentative smile on his face. "Aw, how cute," Rose cooed. Albus rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. What're they talking about?"

"What else would they be talking about? They _are _a couple, you know." Rose noticed the confused expression on his face.

"No I didn't. I thought they broke up some time ago."

"You're hopeless."

"Whatever." Albus fingered one of the little white buttons on his shirt. "Well, if you'll excuse me Miss Weasley, I need to talk to my friend alone." And so, without waiting for Rose to question what he had said, or for Scorpius to run far, far away, Albus grabbed the latter's shirt again, gave a smile to his cousin, and walked down the pathway a bit until they were away from Rose.

Scorpius immediately grabbed his shirt from his friend's grasp and smoothed it out. "What's your explanation for trying to ruin one of my favorite shirts?" he mimicked Al from earlier.

"Initiate the almost _never_ fails plan, Scorpius!" Al said, ignoring his question. Scorpius paled.

"Now? Like, right now? Presently? At this moment?" Albus interrupted before he could go on.

"_Yes_, right now." And then, as an afterthought, he added, "You should really join me and Rose when we're thinking of synonyms."

Scorpius took a deep breath and let it out. "Okay, I'll go." He nodded to himself, smoothed out his shirt again, and walked toward Rose who had her back to them. She must have heard the snow crunching under his feet because she turned to face him and narrowed her eyes upon seeing him. Before she could talk, he got down on one knee and gently took one of her hands into his own. He nearly smirked when she looked shocked, but managed not to. He started to get nervous looking into her blue eyes and finally, licking his lips some, he opened his mouth.

"Rose, marry me."

* * *

**A/N: **Hello again! I won't bother you with my useless excuses (for I do have some, but they're the same old same old; school, lost track of time, been busy, writer's block, etc. etc.) for now, so I hoped you enjoyed this chapter! :)

Please review, they make me happy, though I'm probably not worthy right now. :( But everyone's deserves happiness, right? :) Well, most people . . .I mean, contiue on reading this **A/N: **if you already are!

Oh, and I know I made a mistake in the previous chapter: I said Rose had taken Lily to Honeydukes, but then I saw I had them sit down at some table much like one would do at a restaurant, but let's pretend there were chairs in there for parents as they waited for their children and the table was. . .some table.

And it's true (in my opinion) about button up shirts. They are _finger and wrist_ machines. :)

**P.S.: **Maybe you want to check out my new Teddy/Victoire story (which is rated T for language)? It may seem weird, but at least it's original and I hope, if you do give it a gander, you'll enjoy! :)

**P.P.S.: **Is anyone else having trouble looking at the traffic (when you log in and click the "traffic" tab for those of you who didn't know) for their stories, or is that just me? If it's just me, I might start hyperventilating or something. But if it's not just me, what do you guys think is wrong with it?


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